I spent some time Saturday night catching up on news. Inevitably, that meant reading a little bit about Rory McIlroy‘s performance at the US Open. I’m no fan of golf yet I couldn’t help but marvel at what the kid had accomplished. Now that he’s won in historic fashion I think it goes down as one of the more noteworthy feats we’ve seen in some time.
And yet, it leaves me cold.
I respect the hell out of quality golfers. Anyone who’s ever picked up a club knows how hard it is to be proficient, let alone good. To get to the level McIlroy is at — and to do it at just 22 — is impressive, indeed. But I can’t get excited about it the same way I get excited about other sports. Reason being that I don’t think of golf as a sport.
I say that for one simple reason: to win in golf one needn’t actually beat anyone but himself.
Sure, there’s a leaderboard. Every player has a score and the goal is, obviously, to post the best one. But that’s just it. When the competition is internal — do your own best, by yourself, and hope it’s better than someone else’s best, by himself — that means you’re playing a game, not a sport.
The essence of sport is direct competition between individuals or teams. It’s push and pull, action and reaction. Results are not contingent solely on what one person or team does — they are mitigated or enhanced by the other side. A great fielder can take away what might have otherwise been a base hit. A cornerback can turn a touchdown pass into a turnover. A jump shot can be blocked. A great serve in tennis only goes as far as the opponent’s ability to return it, or not.
Take, for example, auto racing — another activity sometimes derided as “not a sport”. If auto racing was golf then time trials would determine the winner. Get the right setup, run the fastest lap(s), and hope your best is the best. But in auto racing they call that “qualifying”, not racing. The champion is decided in traffic.
Golf is a game played against the course and the elements, not against other golfers. There’s plenty to appreciate about that, for sure, but following the leaderboard as one golfer tries to post a better score than another is a damn far cry from watching Roger Federer trade shots against Rafael Nadal, or watching a battle between the Ravens and Steelers.
Now, admittedly, this gets complicated. Let’s go back to my auto racing example. Rally racing is exactly what I described — time trials. If I’m being intellectually honest then I have to admit that rallying is just like golf. Drivers compete against themselves and the elements but not directly against other drivers.
It gets further complicated if we consider things like gymnastics or figure skating. Both are individual pursuits where the best score is the goal. Are these not sports? By my own logic, no.
And yet none of these trouble me like golf. I can’t say exactly why. Perhaps it’s the difference in athleticism, perhaps it’s just my own personal bias. Probably it’s a bit of both.
Either way, there’s no doubt that watching someone play a game at a high level, whatever form it takes, can be exciting and worthy of recognition. That’s why I found myself intrigued by McIlroy’s performance. But there is a difference between that and “sport”.
Whatever the difference is, I’ll take direct competition. Something about that just feels bigger and, to me, always will.
(photo via Flickr user kompuder_dude)
