Raise your hand if you have
played or tried to play golf anytime in your life. Go on, raise your hand, and
wave it around, wiggle your fingers, make a shadow puppet bunny, the point is
many of you have probably tried at least once. As a result, there is that
mutated blob of a rabbit on your wall. Now, raise your hand if you play golf
now. Anyone? No-one? Okay, well, it’s probably just me. So here is where I slide
into my question: why is golf so unpopular with the youth compared to other
sports, like basketball?
Well APPEAR THE THESIS to
make my OCPD (correct term, not OCD, research it) satisfied.
Don’t worry, it’ll include media Mr. Starace.
So the reason is media
influencing our perception of sports as a young person, especially sports like
golf. Media also degrades golf as a sport through advertising the hipster
image. (Patience will tell you my friend.)
FIRST there is media
influencing the image of sports. Here is the image you see when you think of
golf.
Here is what golf actually
looks like.
Haha, silly Geico. No, it’s
more like this.
See that face, that’s the face
of an athlete. So, why do you get the image of the old cigar-smoking grandpa
when golf comes up? Because MEDIA.
Most media presented to the
average person related to golf almost always includes the old man. This reality
assumption made that only old men play golf is absolutely false. But why do
some people buy it? They probably relate to golf’s subtitle, or that famous
line in that golf movie with Shia Laebouf. “Golf is a game played by gentlemen”
the word “Gentlemen” has that connotative meaning of an old, high class
man.
No, not that one.
Yeah, that’s the one. Monocle and everything. This assumption
has remained in our minds for so long, you can probably no longer get rid of
it. So this assumption ingrained in our minds is used by companies using golf.
The hipster ideology now
sold to the younger population markets the “cool” sports. You probably know it
is the basketball that reigns supreme in America. Other places, it is soccer
(or futbol) that is the popular thing. These sports advertise
the ideal peak physical condition of what we have learned to see as an “athlete”.
Golf is seen as left to the aging people who can’t play the strenuous sports
anymore. Truth is, golf is just as strenuous and demanding as soccer or
basketball. (sorry, baloncesto y futbol)
The movie “Seven days in
Utopia” is a great example of this.
(*God, another
movie, Tristan watches way too many movies*)
Well deal with it!
I don’t need glasses yet, so I’m still okay staring at a screen for two hours. Here’s
the trailer.
Summary: guy breaks down,
snaps chipping wedge, runs to isolated town, learns golf from a wise old man,
comes back, POSSIBLY wins PGA Texas tour.
Media like this is kind of
rare, outlining the difficulty of golf. Its not all physical, but you do have
to walk a lot with a 50 Lb weight on your back for almost a mile up and down
hills. And you keep your elbows tucked in. always keep your elbows tucked in. Don’t
look like a chicken. Oh, there's also injuries. damages lower spine, torn arm muscles, wrists. hand cramps, blisters. There's also getting hit by a golf ball. Whatever you do, don't get hit by a golf ball. Its like the rain god had kidney stones. The difficult part shown in movies like “Seven days in
Utopia” is the mental aspect. Golf is rated as one of the most strenuous and
taking mental sports because your are slowly wearing yourself down as well as
having to focus every second. And if you make a bad shot, you have to forget
about it. “(Easier said than done)
CONCLUSION TIME BECAUSE I'M
STARTING TO RAMBLE.
To sum it up, gold is
misrepresented in media as a lazy sport meant for old people. The reality is it
is much more difficult, one of the most difficult sports out there. Golfers never
get the recognition they deserve going through pretty much hell keeping that
elbow tucked in. Don’t look like a chicken.
This is a great post and golf is a great well-rounded sport as it combines physical and mental strength. It is a good point that people definitely associate golf as a more higher, privileged sport than others that are popular in the US. Ultimately, the demographics tend to be different within different sports like comparison of golf and football.
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