Golf, The Gentleman's Game
Golf has become a worldwide phenomenon in sports in this era of jet-age travel and the cyberspace world of information and technology. Even as an ancient game, it has remained one of the most attractive and participatory of the varied fitness and sports, or fun-and-leisure activities characterizing modern-day lifestyles and cultures in our world today.
Contrary to the image that once enclothed this simple game with its colonial creators of generations past, the game as it is played in today's psyche can and should be considered to have shed and brushed-away this largely dispensable 'elitist' tag down into the dustbin of history. No one should be tagging this pastime anymore by any other name but a sport!
The truth is, only the garrulously awkward, unathletic couch potato, being natively bereft of self-worth and self-respect, will very often conveniently claim this cowardly excuse and label this game 'elitist', 'colonialist' or 'fascist'! The painful truth is, the flab has nary the psychomotor skill or inclination to lift a pinky, or even just trail gaze his 'pale' balls, much less think of breaking a sweat!? What? And shrink 'neath the midday heat bludgeoning one with a limp-wristed whiff he'd dare call a swing! May as well call running a capitalist nightmare! (sic*)
The lure of golf today spans the entire global spectrum of modern man's social and racial diversities. Broken down to its barest essentials, this sporting pastime is a simple, even queer if un-natural, physical chore! As a game, it is quite thoroughly an easy one to understand. Hit a ball! Retrieve it and without touching it, hit it again as it lies.as few times as possible. until it settles in a designated hole in the ground! And that's it! Well. almost. until some other things intrude! Then the real fun begins.
Fact is, the once-poor (now unimaginably wealthy, in peso terms, o'corz!!), colored-man and current champion from the far-away speck-of-a-Pacific-island of Fiji, Mr. Vijay Singh, knows that as in every sport today, hard work, determination and diligent practice remain the essential ingredients to success. It is one other human equalizer! Skin color? Social status? If it still doesn't get through that Neanderthal skull of yours. just, ask Tiger!
It is really just a game! A unique game! An intriguing, many times inscrutable. and sometimes utterly frustrating game! A game largely for the brain. And as an afterthought. also of the brawn! A game largely to challenge the mind, better still.the spirit! A game to challenge one's inner person. one's humanity even. A game not just to learn to accept one's frailties, but to better discern the truths about one's humility, honesty and integrity. or the lack of it! Exceptional! Is this why it is called a 'Gentleman's game'?
Well, in golf, to talk brashly. to claim invincibility with a 'know-it-all, can-do-it-all' cockiness. to disregard established traditions, rules of order and basic civility - values that form the game's foundations. or to conceal transgressions, big and small . is to undermine the game.
Such is the formula and the prelude to a grand failure in golf that is sure to come! There. is the sure model for real losers. pathetic in their innate inability to deal with, firstly their own, and then other peoples' (surely, their competitors'!) uniquely human shortcomings! Hasta la vista, baby! They don't last long in golf, anyway! Suits everyone just fine! Even in golf there is natural selection.
True gentlemen often stay and move up. They persevere because they understand! They have patience.oftentimes, incredible patience only fellow golfers understand, and non-golfers freak-out of!
But alas! There are so few who truly thrive and excel in golf. As in real life, real gentlemen are truly hard to come by anymore! But you may still find some. in the Sta. Barbara golf course. where golf traditions are still held sacred... and thankfully, are still alive!