The Sound Debate in Golf

I was out on the course this weekend with my wife and two kids in tow. My 10-year old boy was playing with me while my wife and six year old were in another cart just along for the fresh air and fun. Oh, I forgot--this was the first time on a golf course for the six-year old, so it was interesting trying to get a precocious boy to understand golf etiquette in relation to other sports.

Why? On the first hole my son made a pretty good putt, and my youngest was in the cart cheering--pretty loudly. Of course I shushed him and tried to explain things, but then as the day went by and things loosened up, his loudness got a little more hole by hole, and by the time things were all said and done, he was dancing on the last green using the putter as a microphone like he was on "PGA Idol" or something. And I thought, "w\Why is him being loud a bad thing? It's not really bothering me, so what's the big deal?"

Honestly, I have played golf for over 20 years, and I have never questioned the "gentleman's" part of it, the quietness of all, but when I again thought about other sports, why is golf determined to be a sport where being quiet during it is a must? Why is it more necessary to not click a camera while Tiger Woods is teeing off as opposed to the ninth inning where a pitcher is trying to throw a 90-mph fastball on the outside corner with a full count? Why is it that a sport like bowling, where previously it was a quiet sport as well, that now televised events have people clapping and carrying on while things are going on and there's been no real downturn in performance?

To me, the need for some changes in golf is imminent, and while the things that happened like in "Happy Gilmore" when the crowds really kind of got wild with Happy's rise, it's not too far from some of the direction that is needed--at least a relaxing of some sort. Kind of like what Vegas has planned for bringing in a younger crowd to the slot machines with making it more like video games with joysticks, etc., the dinosaur concepts in golf really need to be looked at and more things thrown at the youth of America, or else golf may just go the way of the dinosaur...extinct.

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The Sound Debate in Golf

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