Michael Lewis doesn’t like golf

June 24th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

Debating whether golf is a sport or not seems sort of silly. There are plenty other hybrid recreation/sports activities — say poker — that should be up for debate. Golf, it seems, is pretty clearly a sport. It’s highly competitive, you sweat when you play, it takes an insane amount of skill and practice. Sure, they aren’t Reggie Bush, but they are athletes. I’m not sure you’ll find many people busting on the merits of golf.

Unless you read Michael Lewis.

One of the amazing things about golf is how many people have been fooled into believing it is actually a real sport. All over the world people now talk and think about golf as if it’s more like football or basketball than, say, bird- watching.

[ … ]

As he limped and grimaced up fairways and around doglegs, with the crowd and the cameras lusting for every wince-laden drive, he was no longer just golfing. He was elevating golf to the status it so desperately seeks: the status of a genuine athletic event.

Finally, you could hear the golfing world thinking to itself: A golfer is proving once and for all that our game is a test of deep character and physical courage.

See: Golfers play hurt!

See: You can even get hurt playing golf!!!

Well, you can get hurt playing darts, too. Or hiking. Bowling can be seriously hazardous, if you don’t know what you’re doing. Play with enough passion and you can even injure yourself in a spirited game of Monopoly. (I once cut my finger grabbing Park Place.)

Ouch. Although, he is totally right about Monopoly. You play that hard enough, land in the wrong spot, and you go to jail. It’s intense.

{HT: FanHouse.}