Right, I am taking a break from scribbling about the iniquities of inheritance tax, dumb airline security and so forth to link to this terrific article by Ed Brayton about golfing phenomenon and American icon, Tiger Woods. Even if you do not give a two-foot putt about the game, this article is a fine study of the sheer force of will that has propelled a man to become the master of his sporting world:
I have to admit to being absolutely fascinated by Tiger Woods. I’ve followed his career closely, despite doubting him initially. I remember watching the press conference when he announced that he was leaving Stanford and turning pro. I particularly remember watching Phil Knight, CEO of Nike, talk about the $40 million contract they had signed with Woods, and I remember laughing out loud and ridiculing Knight when he said that Tiger Woods would transcend the game of golf the way Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali transcended their sports.
No way, I said; not a chance. No matter how good he is, no matter how much he dominates the sport, golf will never be anywhere near as popular as basketball or boxing and that will limit his fame and his standing in relation to the rest of the sports world. Golf is too much an exclusive sport, too tied in with the rich and the well born to have the kind of universal appeal that other sports have. And it’s solitary, one man by himself, with no defense to be played and no one on one competition to fuel rivalries. Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t put any money on that prediction.
Brayton’s blog, Despatches from the Culture Wars, is definitely worth a regular visit, too.
Golf has always been our family obsession.
My father was a scratch player, nay he was plus two on his home course. For non golfers that means he was so good, he had 2 strokes added to his score before he even stepped onto the first tee, and was still expected to come in well under par.
He wanted to be a professional, but his window of opportunity coincided with the rather pressing matter of defeating Germany and Japan, so he continued to be a frustrated amateur. All his brothers and sisters were at least single handicappers too.
Tiger Woods, I had the privilege to see live, when he played in the Walker Cup (the Ryder Cup for amateurs) at the Royal Porthcawl, back whenever that was, and he was unbelievably good even then.
See Golf is like chess coupled with a long walk and the odd pause to whack the shit out of a little white ball.
Great golfers do not play each other, they play themselves and against the course.
There are hundreds of golfers out there who have the same shot making ability as Tiger, but nobody, but nobody! has the same intellegence, guts and nerves that he has.
His 4 rounds to win the British Open this year was a master class! The finest golf I ever saw. He did just what my dad told me, and I’m sure his dad told him-
put it no more than a foot from the hole, especially with your first putt. If the line is right, some of them will drop for Birdies or even Eagles. Put it 6 feet away and you could be three putting for bogeys.
He did that to the letter! Magnificent!!
I could bang on for hours, but will let the rest of you get a word in.
At the same time, Tiger has not only helped popularize the game by his spectacular dominance of the sport and fantastic play, as well as his youth and good looks, but has quietly helped tear down both real and imagined walls of racial elitism in the sport, both on the part of club members, and on the part of the general publics perception of those clubs.
Rather than getting up on a stump and ranting and shaking his fist like an Ali or a Farrakhan, he, like Arthur Ashe before him in the sport of tennis, simply went on being as good as he could be, and as decent a person as he could be, and by his daily example, disproving the stereotypes that are prone to infect the minds of many a shoddy thinker.
Tiger Woods is a force of nature. He is the sort of person who redefines a whole game. He is truly amazing and I wish him all the luck in the world…
Only thing is the most prodigous golfer the world has ever seen can’t stop me thinking that it’s basically a very, very dull game.
Now, crazy golf (with windmills and stuff) I enjoy. But the “real thing” makes cricket look interesting.
If your doctor ever says to you
You are looking a bit peeky
Why dont you take a few days off,
Play a little golf. It will relax you.
Go straight back to work.
It is the most difficult and frustating
but ultimately rewarding game in the world.
When you non golfers have a go
and accidently hit the perfect drive
You will be hooked!
It’s like you missed the ball entirely.
Didn’t feel a tremor, or a vibration.
But there it is, sailing down the fairway!
Just where you wanted it to be!
Pure Zen and the art of keeping your head down!
The game of golf is of almost no interest to me, but I was still moved by the book “Tiger Woods Made Me Look Like A Genius”, by Don Crosby, who coached the high school team on which Tiger played. It wasn’t just the early start and massive determination which made Tiger great, but an an approach which is applicable to any striving for success.
The anecdote which stays with me relates to when the team, due pretty much to Tiger, was invited to a tournament in Canada. Don Crosby accompanied Tiger on a practice round. On one hole, Tiger saw that a small error in his drive could put him into a disasterous lie. He grabbed four extra balls, tossed them into the problem area, and practiced chipping them onto the green. In tournament play, for some reason, he made the anticipated bad drive, and then chipped the ball into the cup. It looked to everyone like either awesome luck or awesome skill, but those were clearly aided by a mind which saw more of the game than most people.
I hate golf, despite its being an individual sport.
I have a prejudice derived from meeting a few too many practitioners who are highly conformist, ‘successful’ in a stereotyped corporate way, and smug about it. It’s also far from pretty. Rip up hundreds of acres of interesting countryside, replace it with green hummocks and gold holes, and scatter it with milk floats and fatties in Pringle, why don’t you?
But Woods himself seems charming and modest despite obviously prodigious talent and determination. To be so tough and remain courteous to others, makes him a star in my book, despite his sad choice of occupation.
Guy, I dunno, some golf courses, with their sweeping fairways and so forth, can be beautiful. After all, much of the English countryside is man-made with its hedgerows and the like. Capability Brown, the famed landscape gardener of the 18th Century, might have liked Wentworth, the gentle slopes of Pebble Beach, California, etc.
Yes, I can see why some folk get irritated by the sort of person who plays golf, but generalisations are always bad in this case. The sport has got a lot more accessible for the average punter. In London, it is still pretty expensive, unfortunately, to join a private club. I play a bit – not very well – but I enjoy the friendship and find most of the people in it to be a decent bunch. You don’t get too many yobs in the sport. For a long time it did have a terrible image problem vis a vis non-white guys and of course women. That is changing, thank goodness.
Olympic rowing coach Terry O’Neill put it very succinctly: “It’s not a sport if you do it in knitwear”.
That apart, Tiger Woods is clearly a master. However, I have to wonder just how competitive the sport was until he came along. He’s was possibly the first (and still one of the only) golfers to be truly physically fit. Woods doesn’t seem to have a level of ability way above others (very talented though he is) – he wins through extreme consistency and the ability to maintain his level at the end of tournaments. Is this a consequence of the fact that he is physically fit and the others aren’t? I suspect so.
HJHJ, you make a good point. I would add that folk like Gary Player, Greg Norman, etc, were pretty fit and took their fitness seriously. But if you look at some golfers: John Daley, Montgomerie, Clarke, etc – they are slobs, at least in outward appearance.
With Woods, the fitness obviously helps, but I think it is the ferocious honing of skill that makes the difference.
Johnathon,
And the people you mentioned all dominated the sport…
Forgive me for banging on about rowing, but those in the sport know that rowing is pretty much the ultimate fitness activity. No surprise then that Tiger Woods rows (on a rowing machine (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2005/04/07/sgjono07.xml) and so does Michael Schumacher. But by top rowers standards they are not especially fit – although they are by normal standards.
Incidentally, the World Rowing Championships are on this week at Dorney Lake (Eton). Some of the greatest athletes in the world are on show (unlike in golf) – like the Evers-Swindell twins (fabulous athletes and absolutely gorgeous) and the GB defending world champions in the women’s quad (truly awesome) and the men’s coxless four. What’s more you don’t even need a ticket for the first 1500m of the course for the finals this weekend.
Incidentally, Dorney is a fantastic facility, a 2012 Olympics venue (rowing and canoeing), it’s finished, it was privately built and financed and won’t cost a penny of taxpayers money (in fact it will be big net revenue generator). Most of the people running the event are volunteers.
HJHJ, I have been using the rowing machine quite a lot at my gym and it is probably the best way, in my view, to get the fitness levels up, improve toning, etc.
I would also add that in terms of sheer fitness, cyclists – at least the ones that do not cheat with drugs – and skiers, take some beating.
As for motor racers, yes, the modern guys like Schumacher all take fitness seriously. The G-forces that apply mean that a modern racer has to build up his neck muscles quite a bit, and because they lose so much body fluid in a race, they have to be very fit. In the days of Fangio and Jim Clarke, this was not the case. Then, they could get away with being quite fit.
Fitness levels have improved across the board. Rugby, soccer, even cricket.
Yes Johnathon, cycling is excellent, although not quite the all-body exercise that rowing is, and so is swimming. Rowers tend to do quite a lot of cycling, because being somewhat less intense than rowing, you can keep it up for longer and so it is good for long distance low intensity training. A rower can’t really keep form on the water or on a rowing machine for distances greater than about 20km (which begs the question why am I rowing the Boston Rowing marathon – 31 miles (50km) in September?)
You have to have a good ‘engine’ in all of these sports. Put a cyclist or a swimmer on a rowing machine and (assuming technique isn’t terrible) they will tend to pull a reasonably good score straight off. Rebecca Romero (2005 women’s quad rowing world champion) has recently switched to cycling as she impressed the British Cycling Federation so much at a track test they invited her on their fast track olympic programme.
How long/how far do you row for in the gym?
HJHU, I tend to row for only about 15 minutes max, and then shift to something else, like a running machine or the bike. I find rowing is pretty hard on my shoulders. I am on the thin side so I am working on building muscle a bit.
I used to row a bit when I was a kid, did lots of canoeing too. Great fun.
Johnathon,
If your technique is right it shouldn’t hurt your shoulders. Brace your uPper body (whilst keeping it relaxed) and accelerate hard with the legs, then follow through with the body and arms, getting your shoulders back properly but smoothly. Then get your hands away fast (but make sure you finish the stroke strongly first), swing the body forward and move slowly forward on the slide during the recovery. It’s important that your raise your hands gently as you come forward to the ‘catch’ (i.e. to start the next stroke) otherwise, if they’re too low, you tend to start by jerking your shoulders back first (which I suspect is why they hurt).
Longer (30 minutes or more) sessions on the rowing machine is the way to go if you really want to get fit. many rowers do 60 min+
What is your typical stroke rate, damper lever setting and 500m pace during your sessions?
Row row row your boat…
I used to do a bit of that. Roath Park lake.
Come in number 58 your hour’s up! Stay away from the islands 36, you know the swans are nesting!
I agree with Guy about the Clubbability of Golf Clubs.
As I mentioned earlier, Dad was a bit good at golf, but he, and I and the rest of the family, loathed the “Club Culture”
When I joined Cardiff Golf Club, in the early 60’s, The club professional, if he wanted to come into the bars and restaurants, had to be signed in by a member!
Why? because he was regarded as a servant!!
The bloke who could outplay anyone in the club, had to be signed in by a pompous Rabbit! Burned me up!!!
Dad and I used to play most sunday afternoons, but we always had to take a change of clothes. Why? Dress code. If you wanted a beer after a round, jackets and ties only in the bar. Burned me up!!!
No ladies in the Captains Bar yep burned me up!!!
Thankfully, all this is changeing rapidly, and it has much to do with Tiger.
I now play at a club that consists of plummers and electicians, relaxed artisans rather than frustrated rule bound middle management, who use a golf club as a substitute for having no control in their working lives.
Little fish, small pools etc. Dress code and female discrimination is non existent.
The game itself, is brilliant. I recommend it to anyone, but steer clear of becoming a committee man.
My Dad won the club championship (Caerphilly) 11 times, but however often he was invited to be Captain, he always refused . He just loved the game, not all the crap that came with it.
I think Tiger Woods’ influence is wildly overblown. After an initial surge of interest in golf, the sport has returned to its previous levels of viewership and interest. Nor have millions of black kids taken up the sport. He is the biggest thing in golf, and rightfully so, but his cultural impact outside of it is over.
– Josh
As a counterpoint to Wild Pegasus’s rather dismissive assessment, this article(Link) is worth a read.
The impression I get is that golf is more popular than ever. Partly that is because of widening affluence. As people get richer, they want to do things that are considered “middle class” or so forth. Golf has been a part of that. There always seem to be stories about folk trying to get planning consent to build a golf course somewhere.
“Childrens golf on upswing causing injuries”(Link)
Interest in golf on upswing(Link)
British golf on upswing(Link)
Golf on upswing in Mexico(Link)
Conclusion: Josh is full of crap.
I like to row in the gym every now and then. I can normally bang out 6km in 30 minutes or 5km in about 22-23 minutes, but wondered if this is any good or not. I don’t have much frame of reference for rowing. Can anyone comment?
HJHJ, I have not answered your questions rightaway since I cannot recall my exact recent settings on the machine. I have just joined a new gym – the LA Fitness chain in Canary Wharf, and I see how I get on.
Tim, You don’t say how big or how old you are, but if I’m honest, 6km in 30 minutes isn’t particularly good.
I’m 5’11”, weigh about 12 st (~170lbs/77Kg) and do a bit over 8km in 30 mins. Admittedly this is my sport, I do a lot of it and am pretty competitive, but a reasonable gym rower should do 7km in 30 minutes.
However, I wonder whether you’ve remembered correctly as this isn’t consistent with 5km in 22-23 minutes (which is considerably better).
Johnathon, let me know what you do (your size, stroke rate, 500m pace, etc.) – this can often give a strong clue as to what you need to change to improve and how your technique is.
Incidentally, it isn’t ‘harder’ if you row with the damper lever set to a higher setting. The machine only measures the amount of work you put into it – different damper settings are like gears on a bike, i.e. down to personal preference, but I’d encourage you to use a setting of around 3 or 4 typically as this is what rowers use and it is better for developing the correct technique. Damper setting 10 is generally used by macho gym types (who don’t realise that it’s not a measure of difficulty).
Incidentally, I just got back from the world rowing championships today. Some awesome performances. 20-year old Zac Purchase from Marlow flew down the course in the lightweight single sculls to become the new world champion and setting a new world record at the same time. Near flawless technique too. As an athlete, Tiger Woods doesn’t even come close.
The race of the day was the mens’s heavyweight single sculls. The World Champion vs the World Record Holder vs the Olympic Chamipon vs the World Cup Series Winner. Hacker (world record holder) flew out the blocks but Drysdale (defending world champion) hunted him down in the last 500m to catch him on the line by a foot (over 2000m!) – but he had to set a new world record to do it. The sheer power generated by these guys (for nearly 7 minutes) and their skill in choppy conditions is awesome.
Thanks for the link and for the kind words. It’s funny, I write a couple thousand words every day about science, law and religion, but it’s a post on sports, which most of my readers frankly don’t care about in the least, that gets attention. Still, it’s nice to get attention from this blog in particular, which I’ve long admired.
I played golf once, was good at it, and decided to quit while I was ahead, seeing how obsessed people get about it.
I’m a rower, prefer real water to the damned machine. But, to make winter workouts more bearable, use the Concept 2 website or Row Pro software and compete with others on the results boards and in the holiday challenges.
I’m old and slow but it’s a great workout. My heart, blood pressure, and blood are as healthy as when I was a buff college athlete. I’m shaped nicely, too. Having my endorphins out on a wilderness lake is certainly a stress buster and the highlight of my day. And I can go solo! (Single sculler.) I am a rowing referee, too, and that’s a lot of fun.
Tiger has personality galore and a compelling story and a thousand watt smile. That smile! He’s dreamy!
Lance Armstrong has same kind of appeal–masculine, symmetrical handsome face, compelling story, great comeback, he’s got balls! (LOL) and now a cause. He’s cool.
Hopefully his ex adopts Susan G Komen Fdn. I am seeing Sheryl Crow in a week and she’s a BrCa survivor. She’s cool too.
Evers Swindall twins should wear tight T shirts saying
NICE 2-
(A little rower humor there.)
Off to the lake!
Kentuckyliz
Nice joke attempt, but of course the Evers-Swindell Twins row a double scull and not a pair.
The shock was that they only won bronze on Saturday. I saw them (separately) on Sunday. One of them (Cartoline or Georginea, couldn’t tell which as they are identical) sat down practically next to me at the start. They are even more attractive in the flesh.
I also scull, but the C2 has the advantage of convenience, especially in the winter.