Dan LeBatard Doesn't Think Tiger Woods Is an Athlete, Golf a Sport

Well, I don't think that LeBatard is a real journalist. That dude is a serious hack.

Reply

Honestly, I don't like Le Betard but what he said really isn't that big of a deal. I think a sport is anything that involves athletic ability and has an objective method of scoring. To me it seems pretty obvious that golf involves no more athletic ability than playing guitar or the like, but it is still an unbelievable skill. I don't think LeBetard is taking anything away from Tiger by saying that, he's just making the observation that sports involve a level of physical athleticism not found in golf.

Reply

I have trouble calling anything a sport if it doesn't involve defense or a high level of athleticism, and I know plenty of people who don't view golf as a sport. So, I'd say "most ridiculous answer" is a bit harsh.

As for me, I'm on the fence. I don't know why it's so offensive to say golf isn't a sport - as if that takes anything away from Tiger's accomplishments - but in many ways, sorry, I just don't think it is.

Reply

For some reason, this argument always dissolves into a zero-sum game. Can't we say that golf is a sport, but isn't the same as basketball, football, hockey, etc., and that for that reason, there is a ceiling on how highly we can rank the top golfer amongst all other athletes?

But make no mistake, there is a ceiling. It's "ridiculous," as you say, to argue that because Tiger is ripped or that he can dunk a basketball, therefore he belongs in the same company as other athletes. His athleticism is not what's being called upon when he's golfing. It's not what's at stake. Oh sure, his conditioning is definitely a part of what makes him so much better than every other golfer, but the skills invoked by golf do not demand the ability to dunk. It makes no more sense than saying Bush is a great president because he throws a great opening-day pitch (even if he actually inspires a modicum of confidence when he does it).

Reply

By that logic, I drive a car to work everyday and I can make both right and left turns. Does this mean that NASCAR is not a sport either? How about drag racing? Only a quarter of a mile? Where is the line? A batter is great if he is able to get on base 3 out of 10 hits. Then gets to stand there until somebody else gets a hit. ALL of these including Golf are sports. Otherwise you could not go to a sporting goods store to buy stuff for golf.

Reply

Thing is, regardless if a scientist studied an athlete in a specific sport and told everyone how, exactly, that athlete was in fact an athlete (based on what the body goes through, physical condition and physical exertion), some sports get a stigma attached to them because it's less obvious what the athlete goes through.

The reality is, the argument that a person is or isn't an athlete is a moot one. They're getting paid a crazy amount of money to do something that's superfluous. Sport is some sort of competition. The athlete is the person that takes part. Fans of each sport will rally for their sport. And the world will keep turning. And those that try to over-complicate something as simple as fun competition will keep throwing around labels that are meaningless to back up arguments that really don't matter.

Cause Tiger can do it and the rest of us can't. Michael Jordan could do what most people can't. Who all can swim like Ian Thorpe? Run like Michael Johnson? Skate like Michelle Kwan? I can't do those things. In my mind, those people have a great skill they've worked years to cultivate. Let them be called athletes.

Reply

Golf is no more a sport than playing hide and go seek or tag. They are all games, but not sports. Now I don't think the exact definition of "Sport" is easy to pin, but golf is much more a game based on skill, rather than athleticism.

Comparable to card games. Much skill is involved, but no there is no real requirement other than the stamina it takes to walk the holes, or sit through a tournament.

Reply

As Robert could get called out and I want to back him up...CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta studied NASCAR drivers to see if they qualified to be called athletes. The closest comparison is marathoners. And yes, Gupta determined that, to his criteria, they were athletes.

Reply

Of course golf is a sport, maybe LeBatard and that moron Milbury should get together and figure things out. What makes basket ball, throwing a ball into a net or hockey, shooting the puck into the net any more of a sport than golf?
Golf is very demanding and requires physical and mental strength.

Reply

Golf is a sport and Tiger is an athele who was trained to be a champion by his late father on mental toughness. Dan LeBatard is the same maroon who said Debi Thomas died of a broken heart after her Olympics faux pas in 1988. Last I checked Doc Hawk is still alive and well.

Reply

THE EVIL PRACTICE OF "GOLF" SHOULD BE CONFINED TO THE DEDICATED COUCH POTATOE.

Reply

Golf fits alongside Darts on the "sport" scale. It doesn't take away from the great players to call what they do a game, but that is just what it is, a game. A sport is something that combines skill with physical fitness. Golf does not require a level of fitness beyond that of the average middle-aged couch potato. If you can play it with an oxygen tank, its not a sport.

John Daley is not an athlete.

Reply

finally someone agrees with me. Tiger woods is not an athlete and golf is not a sport. golf is a hobby. football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer players can play golf, not at the same level as tiger, but tiger woods can never play even 2 minutes of professional football. ESPN and these sports networks need to stop hyping up tiger by calling him the greatest athlete ever. Tiger is a great golfer but let's not get carried away and call him an athlete. What's next...Danica Patrick a better athlete that Jackie Joyner?

Reply

dear dan..as a young physician,i learned many years ago that one of worse things in life is: when you don't know what you don't know it is time to keep silent..golf is not about what DAN thinks. the sport would be played without spectators no matter what. m

Reply