"Get in the hole"

As we are now smack in the middle of summer, a season that beside the heat (at least where I live) is the worst sport season, unless you're a big baseball fan (which I'm not) you have very few options to choose from. the NFL is still few months away, the NBA and NHL already ended, same with the major European soccer leagues.

The only event I'm looking for is the occasional Formula One races, and usually they end very early in the morning, and in my continues task to entertain myself I found myself flipping the old TV to NBC and watched few minutes of US Open Golf here and there. I must say I was able to learn and reaffirm several points (all very subjective, I'm sure):

Watching Golf is boring, it might be different if I was an enthusiast golfer, but as a very, very casual golfer, I just find myself yawning in front of the TV. I'm not familiar with most of the players, I have no idea what are their strength and weaknesses, and don't have a clue how to really judge a particular hole. At one point I looked at Yahoo tracker and I don't think I recognized more than 10% of the players who made the cut.

I'm pretty sure that even if you are an enthusiast golfer and a huge fan of it, it must be excruciating to actually attend a golf competition as fan. the rounds are very long, from any given point you can't see more than one small part of a hole or two and usually you can probably only see the ball either launch or land. or you can just seat 7 hours in the stands (galleries???) around a certain green and watch putt-putt golf. I'm sure heavy drinking must be involved, which lead me to my next point.

What is it with those stupid "get in the hole" shouts. it seemed as if on any shot of any golfer we'll hear someone shouting "get in the hole". Is it funny? does his buddies are enjoying it? does he really think the ball will get in the hole when teeing off a par 5 hole, or shooting a 'safe' shot back to the fairway? I wonder...

And then there is Tiger Woods. probably (or so it seems) half the field is following him exclusively, regardless of the score or his position. I'm pretty sure most of them can't see shit and are basically feeding of the cheers and woos of the crowd more fortunate than them that can actually see something. not exactly my idea of how to spend a nice Saturday / Sunday afternoon.

Personally, I never understood how someone can be a fan of anyone competing in an individual competition (I'm having hard time categorizing Golf as a Sport). To me, by definition, a fan is someone who supports and and wish success upon. Tiger fans I ask you: Do you rally get a satisfied feeling when he wins another tournament? I'm pretty much sure he doesn't care about you. I admire how Federer is playing Tennis, I can be amazed watching Ayrton Senna driving a race car, my jaws dropped when I saw Hussein Bolt runs the 100m and 200m in the Olympics, but being a fan? I don't get it.

And my last point: is Golf even a Sport? to keep it short: no!
It's a competition, a high skilled one for sure. but walking around hitting golf ball is not a Sport in my book.
next time they can either tackle each other, block each other or at least run from hole to hole (while improving their score if they get there first) I promise I will review it again.


As for the coverage, I think it is actually pretty good. not too many commercial breaks, the scene looks great on an HDTV and the announcers are talking at my level. But do they really have to whisper all the time, even when they are obviously away from all the action?




















"Obviously you're not a golfer."