Should golfers be considered athletes?

Question

I put them in the same category as bowlers, nascar drivers, poker players, etc. Not much athletic ability needed. Just skill.

Answer 1

Golf is considered a sport, so therefore they are atheletes. Just like curling is a sport and in the UK darts is a sport, so those who play it on a competitive level are considered atheletes.

Answer 2

Of course golfers are athletes, I swear to Golf I hate when this comes up. GOLFERS ARE ATHLETES!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET OVER IT!!!!!

I bet everyone who said no knows nothing about golf and is thinking of old men in plaid pants and a sweater vest. Look at Tiger Woods. If you said that he wasn't an athlete he'd bend a 5-iron around your neck and beat you with his driver. You cannot possibly say that GOLFERS, with the emphasis on that word are athletes. I agree with you that fat old men with clubs from 1964 and more cans of beer in their bag than golf balls that decide to flee from their wives and hack at a ball for a day are by no means athletes. GOLFERS are.

Anyone who works at the game and can consistently perform day in and day out is an athlete, because pro golfers and even some of the more serious ametures do train for hours a day and practice their rears off to be the best at the game, so in short.
GOLFERS ARE ATHLETES.

By the way, Mr. Iron-Man. What are you a skilled master of, The Couch Potato Olympics? Until you play the game and can lose less balls than you have clubs, don't knock what you know nothing about.

Answer 3

Are you serious people? This sport takes a lot of talent and devotion. Golfers work longers than athletes in baseball,football,hockey, and basketball. These ATHLETES schedule is the whole year. There is no break. They work every day from morning until night on their game just like all the other leagues. They are defiantly athletes. I mean have you ever seen Tiger and all those other guys in person? They're ripped. Golfers are defiantley athletes.

Answer 4

Of course golfers are athletes. You never played golf if you think that golf is like poker. In poker you sit at a table, and the only lifting you do is lifting playing cards. In golf you have to walk at the very least 3.5 miles miles carrying a heavy bag on your back, and it's usually more like 4. You don't do that in bowling, Nascar, poker, baseball, basketball, or football. The most similar thing to golf is probably backpacking, and you can't say that backpacking takes no physical strength. Golfers are definitely athletes.

Answer 5

I have never liked the term "Athlete" applied to golfers. If you can play the game into your seventies or eighties then it is hardly the strain on one's body that true athletes endure. Golfers don't even carry their own equipment! Basketball, hockey, football, even baseball require physical workouts and training to be sucessful. Some golfers use these techniques but they are not required in order to be sucessful. It is a game and requires skills many will never achieve but so are chess and fishing. No, I do not think golfers are necessarily athletes.

Answer 6

No you don't have to bench press 500 pounds or run a 4.3 40 but putting golfers in the same category as "poker" is a little off. You have to be flexible and you try walking 18 holes in 100 degree heat. The fine and gross motor skills required to deliver a 2 iron "correctly" to the back of a golf ball makes them athletes.

As for some of these idiotic responses, I dare any of you to pick up a set of clubs and pick any course you'd like. I'll give you 20 strokes and carry nothing but my driver, sand wedge and putter. When we get done then I'd like to know how simple you think the game really is.

Answer 7

Golfer are athletes. Lot's of physical skill involved. More than in most sports in my opinion. And for Charles, Racecar drivers are too. 3-4 hours of driving 200mph less than a foot from another car. That's athletic in my book.

Answer 8

An athlete is a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina.
Golf is considered a sport... which means that golfers are athletes. It takes agility to hit the ball, stamina to walk the golf course for four hours, and physical strength to carry a ten pound bag on your back.

Answer 9

YES!!!!!!!!!!!! I love to play golf and so do all of my family. All golfers that are very dedicated and love and enjoy the game should deffinitly be considered athletes. This sport takes more than just skill.

Answer 10

Of course not.A golfer can play even if the guy walk with a can.A golfer can play golf even it the guy have a artificial limb.I think to be a athlete you need more than simple skills to hit with a iron a tiny hard ball.

Answer 11

Try walking 18 in 100 degree heat.
Try hitting 36-40 full strength shots (drives, irons, etc.).

Golf requires upper and lower body strength, flexibility, stamina, strategy, and mental toughness (all which comes from extended physical training)... along with skill (which comes from practive).

Despite the "improvements" in golf technology, average scores for golfers have improved little. Unlike nascar where engines, aerodynamics, tires, etc. have as much impact on the results as the driver, success in golf comes from an individuals performance.

In poker, timing and luck (good for you, bad for them) impacts the results for established players.

With bowling, at least the results are directly related to the individuals performance.

Golf is a sport.