Golf as a game, a sport, or something else?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Funny thing about golf. It started out as a game. It then moved quickly into a competitive sport. Then it became a game again. For many years it has been an opponent that just beats me up, and I hate it but play because I belonged to a club and didn't want to waste my money. Lately, it is beginning to become a game again, but I miss the sport.

[Craig Sweet]

Why should we care?  I don't know who posted "past time" but that pretty much sums up everything that you're doing and not getting paid to do.

[Jim_Coleman]

   If it’s in the Olympics, it’s a sport, although there’s plenty of events not in the Olympics that are sports:

[Ally Mcintosh]

This thread is supposed to have nothing to do with game vs sport.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

This thread is supposed to have nothing to do with game vs sport.

Yep. I'll quote the part of the OP so hopefully we can steer it back.

“You don’t have to explain temptation, lines of charm, diagonal carries, wind, ground movement etc… etc… to me or I suspect the others. I know all that. This is about scoring. If you are just going out to hit golf shots and have fun, take it all on… but then, as I remember one argumentative thread many moons ago, is that golf or just practicing for golf?”

So, should I, as a shaper and architect, change MY thinking about any of this when I am designing and building? Or, is the above a matter of opinion on how one goes about….uh….playing golf….golfing….whichever it is…..and my job is to build challenge that is interesting and interest that is challenging?

[Kyle Harris]

This thread is supposed to have nothing to do with game vs sport.

But it does.

Every bit of it.

Golf as sport hitting the shots and having fun taking or not taking the risks and seeing what happens. Carving a narrative, if you will. The poster child for this idea may very well be Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley.

Golf's games bring the context required to optimization and competition.


Ohoopee Match Club was built on the premise that all play will be match play. Some clubs in England are Foursomes only. The games dictate the culture of the club and how the player(s) integrate with the architecture.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Kyle,


No clubs in England are foursomes only. Some clubs in England are two-ball only.


The thread has descended in to a definition of sport Vs game without tackling the actual question in the OP, namely (paraphrasing) “does the inference that the sport / game of golf is actually about competing change the way we should think about building golf courses?”

[Kyle Harris]

Ally,


And the premise that competition is inherent to both sport and game is being called into question. It’s the difference between the two that answers the question. So establishing a difference between the two does advance the OP because it does make a distinction in the motivations that people may have on the golf course.


Sportsman don’t go hunting to out hunt other hunters.


And thank you for the clarification re: Foursomes. It helped me for a different reason that made me smile inside.