Golf May Not Be a Sport After All…
With everyone watching the Super Bowl Sunday, and Tiger off hiding in a rehab clinic, not many people watched the Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, the site where Tiger outlasted Rocco Mediate on one leg in the 2008 US Open. However, being that I am a self-admitted golf nerd, I still had the tournament on most of the time. The winner was Ben Crane, and the only fact I knew about him was that he is known as the slowest player on tour and other players can’t stand being paired with him due to his snail like pace.
Fast forward to Sunday. Crane is holding a one stroke lead going into 18, which is a par 5. He plays the hole rather safely, and taps in a two foot putt for a par and for the victory. Please watch the below video and see if you notice anything strange when me makes the final putt (start at the 1:30 mark)
The guy taps in and doesn’t even have a clue that he won the tournament. When I saw this, I honestly thought it was a joke. Then I saw his interview after, and it was it was completely truthful. Old Ben said that he never pays attention to the leader board, goes out of his way NOT to look at the board, and instructs his caddy to never talk to him about standings. How could this even be possible? I thought the whole premise of sport is to, I don’t know, maybe win? I just can’t see something like that happening in another sport. What if he was down by a shot and had to be aggressive on the final hole, and played it safe, tapped in and lost by one?
Maybe if Peyton Manning didn’t know the Colts were down by seven Sunday in the 4th quarter, he wouldn’t have thrown the interception that cost them the game?
I was involved in a spirited debate with one of my friends at a Christmas party stating that golf was indeed a sport. His counter argument is that you don’t sweat, you don’t run or jump, etc. This guy pitched in the minor leagues, and my argument back was that you could say the act of pitching isn’t a sport for the very same reason. However, I doubt that a relief pitcher would ever come into the game with blinders on, never look whose on base, no perception of the score, and just give his best effort. I think I might have to rescind my argument.
To me its just another example of the “Wussification of America” where kids can no longer play dodge ball, or any other athletic event in P.E. class that determines a winner or loser. God forbid they are prepared for the real world.
I really hope Ben Crane’s peers give him some serious heat, because his actions and reaction are an embarrassment to the sport, game, hobby of golf.