Worse Sport on Earth: Golf

Golf has been played for hundreds of years. Many things about this sport have remained the same, and one of them is how slow paced and boring the game is. The average golf game can take 4 to 5 hours depending on the standard group of 4 players. It can be played by multiple people on the same team but it’s more like a one man sport. Unlike other sports where fans bring the pressure, the atmosphere, and the joy of the game, in golf you need to be dead silent. Yelling/chanting can result in you getting kicked out of the venue. You need to get a very small ball into a hole from a very far point of the field and you can have as many tries that you like but the team/player with the least amount of hits to get the ball into the hole wins.  Originating in Scotland in the 15th Century coming from royals and nobles, golf was made to be a rich man’s sport and that’s how it has been kept. The rich keep golf to themselves, away from the lower classes. Many other things about the way golf is played has remained the same, like the class that played it and also the way that golf is played. 

Over time instead of royals playing golf, the upper class started getting more of a hold.  Golf started to be more expensive with new creations like golf clubs and memberships costing thousands per month, meaning the poor would struggle to afford it. In order for a Boston citizen to play golf on a public course, they need to pay for transportation, buy clubs, buy balls, pay for a day pass, and rent a golf cart. All these reasons make public golfing not worth it especially when basketball costs a fraction of the price and is much easier to get to.

 The rich continue to be obsessed with golf, spending hundreds of thousands a year just to keep playing. Combining his two terms together, Donald Trump has spent almost 250 million dollars of taxpayer money just so that he can continue his golf hobby. He uses golf as a way to talk to World Leaders in a different way, which is not working at all. He has many golf courses to fund across the globe, such as one in Scotland and one in New Jersey. Adding the traveling expenses of getting to these places, and you can see how it adds up.

However Trump wasn’t the first and only president to have an obsession with golf and sports in general. George W. Bush enjoyed playing golf while he was president, and his golf trips cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Every time he traveled to a golf course, the government had to pay for security, transportation, and other travel expenses. These costs added up over the years, leading some people to criticize how much taxpayer money was spent on his golf outings.  Obama was one of few presidents who wasn’t stupid with his hobby. He played basketball at home in the White House, which wasn’t expensive whatsoever, and didn’t waste tax payer money. 

Golf also affects the land around it. This due to, on average a golf course takes up 110 to 200 acres of land. This affects housing rates with housing prices already becoming more expensive than ever and this also affects the wildlife that used to or still lives on or near the golf course. Golf courses become unthinkable for most creatures causing them to be either invasive or slowly becoming way less common in the region. Golf courses have negative chemical impacts on ecosystems, more specifically wetlands. Wetlands is just a more advanced term for a marsh or swamp, which can carry/hold hundreds of different species.   

When golf courses destroy wetlands, animals lose their homes and many are forced to leave or die. Wetlands also help prevent flooding and keep water clean for nearby communities.    Destroying them just so people can play an expensive sport hurts both wildlife and local families.  Golf courses impact the communities around them more specifically in desert communities. Golf courses drain millions of gallons of water a day to keep the courses lively and green. A golf course that has been doing this is the Trilogy Golf Club at La Quinta, the community around it the course has been struggling with water sources. This causes those communities to become more polluted and struggle to survive without the necessary water.