REALLY IMPORTANT DEBATE ABOUT GOLF

Nowdays, people think they care about important debates, but I've never listen someone talking about the ultimate and most important topic: Is Golf a Sport? That question can leads us to other questions like: what's the difference between games and sports? or what makes an athlet an athlet? Answering those questions can make us understand why here in Chile athlets doesn't have enough resources to achieve the summit of their talents and hard training... because we can't assess what we can't define. In order to clear this up, I'll take the controversial golf topic and argue why golf is a sport (there's a huge debate about it on the internet).

About the sport
When we think about a sport we think in basketball, soccer or swimming but what does implies being a sport? The "international sports federation: SportAccord" declared that word "sport" don't aim to have a general, scientifically sound definition but rather makes a clear and pragmatic description of activities which could be considered as a sport. And they are:With regard to new applications, SportAccord uses the following definition of a sport:

• The sport proposed should have an element of competition: 

• The sport proposed should in no way be harmful to any living creatures. 

• The sport should not rely on equipment that is provided by a single supplier.

• The sport should not rely on any “luck” element specifically designed into the sport.

Now let's talk about golf, even if it's a single activity (like gymnastics or swimming) it does have an element of competition: the points, the more points you gains the better ranking position you obtain. Also, golf only uses sticks to hit balls, not animals or people so is not harmful, golf supplies are made by a lot of differents industies avoiding the monopolio of the equipment. And it doesn't rely on luck, just practice. According to that description golf is considered a sport, just like baseball, boxing or chess.

About the players

We can tell that a golf player is not phisically similar to a basketball player. According to the most reliable source:Wikipedia, there are some sports, like chess, who doen't require a high insensity trainig, even so, we can't avoid the fact that being a professional golf player requiers a hard training to reforce power, force, coordination eye-hand and analitic aptitud, just like a soccer player (ESPN) because the more you train the better results you have. Now, being professional just implies getting paid for practicing and wining, like a job (fact: Tiger Woods was the most wealthy sportman in the world) but for me, it's the seriousness what makes a simple game a professional sport.

In conclusion, golf IS a sport, but also it's a way to clarify differences between our stereotype of sports or players and the reality, because sports are more that just running fast or jumping high, it's a lifestyle, trying to achive the very best with heart, mind and body, mostly mind I can tell, so do not discriminate players by their sport or phisic, they are giving everything and more in the game. I hope the next time you play bachillerato write "golf" at the sports section.
Thanks for reading!

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