I have such a hard time identifying with people’s hatred for golf and I’d really like to understand more. For context I played golf in highschool, so I got to use the course for free since I was a member of the team. For clubs I used either inherited clubs or ones I found in the dumpster. I’ve still got those clubs and I can still hit in the direction I want the ball to go.
I live in a very rural mountainous region that gets plenty of rain and has some of the strictest environmental guidelines in the US. The closest golf course to me costs $17 to play all 9 holes.
What I get is that there are some regions that could not support a golf course naturally and where space is at a premium and could probably be used better (like as another fucking parking lot or something, zoning laws are stupid sometimes). I also get that these courses can over fertilize and run off heavy metals into the watershed. Or waste precious water.
What I also get is that golf is not a fun sport to learn. It is not fun until you start making good swings. But once you do it feels as good to me as snowboarding or mountain biking. You also usually golf with friends (drinking can be a big part too), and doing stuff with friends is fun.
It seems to me that most hatred for golf comes because of capitalism and not because of golf. It’s associated with the capitalist class, buying new equipment is expensive (nothing like hockey though, serious WTF), and capitalists are irresponsible with land.
It seems to me that most hatred for golf comes because of capitalism and not because of golf.
I think you’re right, and you summed up my thoughts about the first 80% of your comment better than I was going to, lol.
I’d say the hatred for golf has a lot in common with the dislike behind the fuckcars communities. It’s not that people hate the experience of a clean hit in golf or a brisk drive down twisty country roads. It’s the resources that go into supporting them which by definition do not go into supporting more efficient/healthy/equitable choices. And yes there is probably a secondary effect tied to certain target audiences who value exclusivity and are generally the worst.
Yes but also it takes up so much room for so few people to exclusively enjoy. I’m not sure that $17 and dumpster diving for clubs can be considered typical for your average golf Enjoyer, though I know there are more and less expensive ways to do everything. They’re also often plopped in urban areas forcing you to walk all the way around to get to the other side (don’t you dare walk in the special sport field)((and God help me if you touch my special sport grass)).
Speaking of the grass it’s wildly bad for the planet. The runoff, as you mentioned, is part of it, but the water consumption from having a nice green in the summer in the warm places people like to stand on a grass field, and the gas from the daily lawn mowing is also a factor. (grass and associated pest/weed killers are also a nightmare from an ecological perspective)
It’s also not a particularly fun sport for many people. I appreciate some people like it, but surely a nice park and a beer is something that can be done a little more fun with far fewer negative externalities.
In all honesty, I have a really hard time understanding the opposite view. Why someone would go stand in a fenced in hot field, grass, gas, and fertilizer odors on the breeze, and spend the whole day just smacking a plastic ball around instead of going for a jog in a park, or swim/float in a lake/river, or go on a hike, or play soccer. Add on top of that the knowledge that what you’re doing is participating in a harmful activity, as discussed above, and I just don’t see how the fun can possibly outweigh all that. My gut reaction is that to play golf you either have to be purposefully or accidentally ignorant, however incorrect that may be.
Capitalism may play a part in making the sport suck, but you can’t play golf without a big field of the largest cultivated crop in the US near where people live, and that’s all it takes for me to dislike it.
golf is basically just a massive “fuck you” to everyone who isn’t a rich shithead nepobaby, it’s all but specifically engineered to flaunt wealth (expensive equipment, takes ages to play, absolutely no connection to any skills useful in daily life aside from walking, etc) and the golf courses themselves are ecological genocide.
i hate golf for the same reasons i hate yachts and cruise ships, the fact that they exist at the same time as people starving to death is utterly fucking vile and it will remain tainted by this fact until no one alive remembers the days when there was starvation on earth.
I have such a hard time identifying with people’s hatred for golf and I’d really like to understand more. For context I played golf in highschool, so I got to use the course for free since I was a member of the team. For clubs I used either inherited clubs or ones I found in the dumpster. I’ve still got those clubs and I can still hit in the direction I want the ball to go.
I live in a very rural mountainous region that gets plenty of rain and has some of the strictest environmental guidelines in the US. The closest golf course to me costs $17 to play all 9 holes.
What I get is that there are some regions that could not support a golf course naturally and where space is at a premium and could probably be used better (like as another fucking parking lot or something, zoning laws are stupid sometimes). I also get that these courses can over fertilize and run off heavy metals into the watershed. Or waste precious water.
What I also get is that golf is not a fun sport to learn. It is not fun until you start making good swings. But once you do it feels as good to me as snowboarding or mountain biking. You also usually golf with friends (drinking can be a big part too), and doing stuff with friends is fun.
It seems to me that most hatred for golf comes because of capitalism and not because of golf. It’s associated with the capitalist class, buying new equipment is expensive (nothing like hockey though, serious WTF), and capitalists are irresponsible with land.
I think you’re right, and you summed up my thoughts about the first 80% of your comment better than I was going to, lol.
I’d say the hatred for golf has a lot in common with the dislike behind the fuckcars communities. It’s not that people hate the experience of a clean hit in golf or a brisk drive down twisty country roads. It’s the resources that go into supporting them which by definition do not go into supporting more efficient/healthy/equitable choices. And yes there is probably a secondary effect tied to certain target audiences who value exclusivity and are generally the worst.
Yes but also it takes up so much room for so few people to exclusively enjoy. I’m not sure that $17 and dumpster diving for clubs can be considered typical for your average golf Enjoyer, though I know there are more and less expensive ways to do everything. They’re also often plopped in urban areas forcing you to walk all the way around to get to the other side (don’t you dare walk in the special sport field)((and God help me if you touch my special sport grass)).
Speaking of the grass it’s wildly bad for the planet. The runoff, as you mentioned, is part of it, but the water consumption from having a nice green in the summer in the warm places people like to stand on a grass field, and the gas from the daily lawn mowing is also a factor. (grass and associated pest/weed killers are also a nightmare from an ecological perspective)
It’s also not a particularly fun sport for many people. I appreciate some people like it, but surely a nice park and a beer is something that can be done a little more fun with far fewer negative externalities.
In all honesty, I have a really hard time understanding the opposite view. Why someone would go stand in a fenced in hot field, grass, gas, and fertilizer odors on the breeze, and spend the whole day just smacking a plastic ball around instead of going for a jog in a park, or swim/float in a lake/river, or go on a hike, or play soccer. Add on top of that the knowledge that what you’re doing is participating in a harmful activity, as discussed above, and I just don’t see how the fun can possibly outweigh all that. My gut reaction is that to play golf you either have to be purposefully or accidentally ignorant, however incorrect that may be.
Capitalism may play a part in making the sport suck, but you can’t play golf without a big field of the largest cultivated crop in the US near where people live, and that’s all it takes for me to dislike it.
golf is basically just a massive “fuck you” to everyone who isn’t a rich shithead nepobaby, it’s all but specifically engineered to flaunt wealth (expensive equipment, takes ages to play, absolutely no connection to any skills useful in daily life aside from walking, etc) and the golf courses themselves are ecological genocide.
i hate golf for the same reasons i hate yachts and cruise ships, the fact that they exist at the same time as people starving to death is utterly fucking vile and it will remain tainted by this fact until no one alive remembers the days when there was starvation on earth.