Competitiveness

Little Gamesmanship, picture from Wall Street Journal

Whether it is buying lunch after losing the bet with your playing partner or cashing in a 1.5 million dollar check after a PGA tournament, there is going to be some sort of gamesmanship in golf. This leads to the next point of a sport which is the competitive aspect. In any sport, you always want to win and it drives you to become the most successful at what you do. In golf, you will always find yourself trying to compete with others or with yourself. You will want to play games with your friends to see who's better; You may also want to play against yourself and see if you can hit a shot better than the last one.

Like in other sports, golfers compete with each other and see who can shoot the best. For example, basketball teams play other teams to see who can get more baskets and the one which has the most, wins. In golf, there are two types of competitive games to see how has played the best of that day (not all days you will win) . The first one is stroke play in which you count all of the strokes it took you to make it into a hole and count up all the strokes you made one each hole. The person who has the lowest score is the winner, this is usually the type of game that pros play in PGA events. The next type of game is called match play in which two players play against each other and see who can earn more points. Scoring for this game is holes that are won, lost or halved (tied). A player who scores the lowest on a hole receives a point and becomes 1-up.  On a course of 18 holes, whoever has the most points wins the match.

Because golf is a mental game, you can get into the heads of other players and almost manipulate their game. It may not seem ethical, but hey, who wants to lose? Golf teaches you to become mentally strong and prepared for times when you have to deal with horrible days or if you have a little, competitive game with your friend who likes to talk thrash.

Skeptics believe golf is just a game where you just hit the ball into the hole. WRONG! You are always going to want to play to see who is better. Whether professional, amateur or weekend hack, each player wants to beat the other and win. It may get a little competitive and people can get a little heated, but there is still sportsmanship. That is the beauty of sports and makes it fun. Plus, having a little bit of bragging rights isn't too bad to have. =D