By Emma Hyder ’25
Have you ever sat down on a chilly Sunday night to watch a football game or a warm Saturday afternoon to watch a baseball game? To many people, those are the two most common sports with the most athletic players. Have you ever thought that maybe golf could be a sport? And maybe even that golfers are athletes themselves? Everyday we are surrounded by golfers in our school, and to get to the bottom of the debate on whether golf is a sport and if golfers are really athletes, I heard insight from our very own golfers.
I was able to speak to eight different golfers in the school, and they all agreed that golfing is a sport, though to different extents. Four out of the eight people said that golfers are athletes and only one of them said golfers are not athletes. The remaining three teachers say it depends on the level of golf: recreational, professional, ect.
Teacher Matthew Kozlowski said, “I believe golf is the hardest sport to learn, it takes a lot of skill and hand-eye coordination.” He also says, “I believe golfers are athletes, even though some of them, you might not think look like athletes, it does take a lot of strength, core strength, leg strength and flexibility.” There are also so many factors that go into a single golf match,for example, the weather. If you’re lucky, you could catch a still day with no wind and the sun shining, but if you are unlucky then you will have wind blowing in your face and possibly some rain. These different conditions can really make a mess of shots. It takes a real athlete to be able to adapt to these conditions and use their strength to get past these obstacles. Another example is the course you are playing on. Every single course you play on will be different. Each one will have different bumps and hills, different parts, and some might even have sand traps and ponds obstructing the course. Golfers have to adapt to the conditions they are playing under.
While Kozlowski believes golf is a sport and golfers are definitely athletes, some of our other golfers in the building do not think the same. Teacher Dave Chevarella says, “When I think of an athlete I think of someone who is athletic, mobile, agile, quick and explosive. There have been professional golfers who look nothing like a professional athlete, John Daly, he was a phenomenal golfer but I would not call him an athlete.” This is also understandable because there have been plenty of professional golfers over the years who do not look like the stereotypical athlete and have skill won the big PGA golf tournament. John Daly, for example, won the PGA tournament in 1991 without having the stereotypical Arron Judge or Nick Bosa athlete build.
There is a lot that goes into being a golfer: professional or recreational. No matter your build, golfing still does take a lot of strength and you must be able to adapt to the conditions. Whether you think golf is a sport or not and if golfers are athletes or not, teacher James Piazza said, “It’s one I’m not very good at.”
The Raider Press 