Overzealous sports parents

[thefuzz]

12 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Even golf leans heavily toward natural talent. The field is just significantly narrowed because you pretty much have to be rich to play enough golf as a youngster to have a chance.

You can be a shrimp, a fatty, or a world class athlete to play that sport at a high level...but you do need some athletic ability.

As far as "rich" I disagree with that, but I grew up in an area that it didn't work like that.

[LinvilleGorge]

5 hours ago, thefuzz said:

You can be a shrimp, a fatty, or a world class athlete to play that sport at a high level...but you do need some athletic ability.

As far as "rich" I disagree with that, but I grew up in an area that it didn't work like that.

You have to have ELITE eye/hand coordination and in today's game good athleticism is becoming more and more important with everyone knocking the ball a mile.

I bet there's not many poor folks on college golf teams and hardly any on the PGA.

[thefuzz]

20 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

You have to have ELITE eye/hand coordination and in today's game good athleticism is becoming more and more important with everyone knocking the ball a mile.

I bet there's not many poor folks on college golf teams and hardly any on the PGA.

I'm still going to disagree with you on the rich thing,....as to the poor portion, no clue...but I bet a LOT of college players come from normal middle class families, never looked into the PGA and where they come from, but it's most famous player most certainly didn't come from a rich family.

[LinvilleGorge]

5 hours ago, thefuzz said:

I'm still going to disagree with you on the rich thing,....as to the poor portion, no clue...but I bet a LOT of college players come from normal middle class families, never looked into the PGA and where they come from, but it's most famous player most certainly didn't come from a rich family.

Golf is expensive. Really expensive. Poor folks need not apply.

[thefuzz]

18 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Golf is expensive. Really expensive. Poor folks need not apply.

Yea, but that doesn't mean you have to be rich to play, or be good at it.

[LinvilleGorge]

10 hours ago, thefuzz said:

Yea, but that doesn't mean you have to be rich to play, or be good at it.

Yeah, it pretty much does.

[thefuzz]

13 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yeah, it pretty much does.

You are out of touch on this man.

I didn't grow up rich, far from it, and I could play as much as I wanted...free.  I know I'm not the only person like that.  But go right ahead, think you have to be rich to be good at golf.

[LinvilleGorge]

7 hours ago, thefuzz said:

You are out of touch on this man.

I didn't grow up rich, far from it, and I could play as much as I wanted...free.  I know I'm not the only person like that.  But go right ahead, think you have to be rich to be good at golf.

You were able to play free. 

That is FAR from the norm.

[thefuzz]

17 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

You were able to play free. 

That is FAR from the norm.

Maybe in cities, but not on small town courses...and if you had any talent at all, then you really got to play free.  High School golf teams as well, that was free.  Again, not saying that poor folks are out there all the time, but lower middle class and middle class folks play a lot of golf...much more than my "rich" friends.

[Floppin]

On 6/9/2022 at 9:07 PM, LinvilleGorge said:

Yeah, it pretty much does.

I was on the high-school golf team playing with clubs that I got from a second hand store. We were pretty much the definition of poor at that point. We didn't even have a refrigerator a few years prior and had to put our perishables in the water trough that ran through the attached "spring house". We got to walk the course for free every day, 5 days a week for most of the school year to practice and played matches on legit Club courses. I went from there and played for App for three years. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Gotcha. So if you're really good and you live somewhere with local golf courses then you can play for free. Yeah, acknowledged. But how many poor people have that initial exposure to golf? How many underprivileged inner city kids have ANY exposure to golf. 

There's a reason golf has it's reputation. Same as skiing. There's a huge bias toward toward the wealthy because the poo ain't cheap.

[Zaximus]

I grew up in a small town and golfing was pretty much out of most people's price range but maybe things have changed.   The places to golf growing up were clubs basically.   I feel like growing up there was a lot of other sports that were far cheaper to be honest.  But I remember some years ago my nephew was doing sports and everything is pretty pricey now to play.

[thefuzz]

On 6/11/2022 at 1:31 PM, LinvilleGorge said:

Gotcha. So if you're really good and you live somewhere with local golf courses then you can play for free. Yeah, acknowledged. But how many poor people have that initial exposure to golf? How many underprivileged inner city kids have ANY exposure to golf. 

There's a reason golf has it's reputation. Same as skiing. There's a huge bias toward toward the wealthy because the poo ain't cheap.

There are positives and negatives no matter where you grow up.  Inner city kids?  They have all the things that come along with city life...LOTS and lots of "free" stuff out there.

Growing up in a small town..(much of NC) has it's own set of positives and negatives.  One being that things are cheaper....pretty much everything, including playing sports.

 

[thefuzz]

On 6/11/2022 at 11:40 AM, Floppin said:

I was on the high-school golf team playing with clubs that I got from a second hand store. We were pretty much the definition of poor at that point. We didn't even have a refrigerator a few years prior and had to put our perishables in the water trough that ran through the attached "spring house". We got to walk the course for free every day, 5 days a week for most of the school year to practice and played matches on legit Club courses. I went from there and played for App for three years. 

My experience as well.  Passed down clubs, or the one of the golf coaches old sets...play as much as you wanted...hardest part was getting to the golf course, but we managed.