Why is golf conservative?

I know it, just why? Because it needs a lot of land and fancy gear?

Seems obvious -- it's a rich person's game, and rich people like to hang on to their money.

it's associated with exclusive country clubs -- the exclusivity appeals to conservatives.

My dad (who is conservative and Jewish) used to boast that the golf club he belonged to once didn't accept jews, so a rich jew just came along and BOUGHT the whole thing. Way to propagate the stereotype, dad

i like that story!

In the US there are many municipal golf courses where anyone may play. It's not as cheap as basketball or soccer, but you don't need to be rich - just have some discretionary money. Needless to say, this is not the image golf usually projects on the public mind, but there are millions of golfers who toil away at thier game without ever playing on a country club course.

you need to play pretty frequently to be good, and that takes money, even on public courses

it's really not that expensive, though. i played every saturday for a couple a years at $12 a game. lessons, however, can be damn expensive.

you need to play pretty frequently to be good, and that takes money, even on public courses

^^^ this.

although it's cheap in parts of the US, around the world it's much more expensive comparatively.

it's conservative because the best courses are in elitist country clubs that are still blue blooded racist fuckholes.

http://gazetteonline.com/files/2009/12/caddyshack.jpg

maybe not exclusively *for* the wealthy, but golf is a social game lots of wealthy people use to build and maintain business (professional, political) relationships

Actually I think this is an interesting question, not easily answered by the expense. For myself, I can only guess that it's somehow connected to the bad clothes they wear. And they get to roam over a lot of territory, even if they can't pee on every green. I could go on, speculatively.

the wealthy don't like to break a sweat, and with golf they don't have to.

it's a competitive sport where they can just stand around!

I sweated buckets during my golfing years.

amateur.

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/gr/Sports-Stats_900.gif

From here

olympics, really? but that's so... international.

the red and blue should be scaled.

I am so glad I finally had a reason to share that beautiful infographic.

Because upkeep of the courses entails environmental devastation (water, chemical run-off from fertilizer), i.e. conservatism.

Where's the NBA in that chart? And wtf with pro wrestling skewing Democratically so much?

Oh, there's the NBA, under WNBA and WTA.

there was adctually a chart posted on another thread about a year ago (i wanna say on ilnfl) that showed the breakdown of the political leanings of the fanbases of a bunch of sports. i have no idea how representative it was but i was sorta surprised that football's fanbase was a little further to the left that baseball's

oh lmao @ images off, i think the one abbot posted is the one i'm talking about

and what i remembered from it wasn't even right! i'm going to bed

Are the WWE liberals just a bunch of college ironists anxious to signal their affection for working-class entertainment?

i.e. Canadians?

NBA more "left" than MLS?

Look how conservative college football is!!

Costs a lot to play, seems hard to attach a world view to a sport. Also what sports are liberal? Frisbee, surfing?

olympics, really? but that's so... international nationalistic.

What kinds of music do Republicans genuinely enjoy?

xp - the NBA has the largest black fanbase (by percentage of fans), black Americans vote Democratic like 90% of the time. A lot of MLS fans are well-off suburbanites and soccer moms/dads.

Monster truck politics are the most surprising, particularly given the placing of motocross.

Wrestling is the 3rd-most Democrat-skewed sport? Really?

(I realise that as a UKer my perspective on this is going to be pretty out of whack with an American one, but that surprised me)

We've had this discussion before, but golf is not necessarily "a rich person's game", depends where you're from

My dad (who is conservative and Jewish) used to boast that the golf club he belonged to once didn't accept jews, so a rich jew just came along and BOUGHT the whole thing. Way to propagate the stereotype, dad

― The world's leaders on pills (admrl), Thursday, 12 August 2010 01:39 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

c+p from Popbitch mailout:

"Bernie Winters used to live in a massive house
backing on to Gerrards Cross golf course in
Buckinghamshire. Back in the day, he really
wanted to join it, but the committee kept
finding reasons to knock him back. When he
finally got the hint that big, fat Jews weren't
welcome at the club, he got his own back by
building a 12ft statue of a rabbi facing the
course in his back garden. The rabbi was
giving the finger with both hands. The club
spent years trying to grow trees to cover it up
- but as they grew, he raised the statue each year."

I didn't know Bernie Winters had a sense of humour - certainly couldn't tell from his act

Even in relatively poor areas there's still this veneer of respectability attached to golf. The one up the road from me is cheap as chips (~£5-600pa I think) but they still won't allow you in the clubhouse without a collared shirt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaYVf4J1zus&

The one up the road from me is cheap as chips (~£5-600pa I think) but they still won't allow you in the clubhouse without a collared shirt.

lol that's not cheap. i think the three clubs local to me you can join for €100 as a beginner, goes up to €200 after the first year.

a collared shirt, iirc, can eat a bag of dicks. we got loads of golf courses, anyone pullin that shit would find themselves losing out custom very quickly indeed.

but yeah as tom said we thruashed this out before with a cuertain stubborn individuol

Golf I guess even if it's not too expensive (but it is) is a harder sport to just TRY OUT I guess unless you have a bit of disposible income?

Also I guess having 400 yards or so of space just for you and your mate to hit a tiny ball into a hole kind of fits in with the whole kind of personal wealth grandeur it's not like you really get to mingle with other people who play the entire time you're playing who aren't your other mate at the hole.

And the amount of equipment and maintenance involved with it too!

Squash is probably similar, to a certain extent.

p.s. I'm basing the whole observation above through the fact that I've never actually done golf or squash.

except pitch and putt a couple times..

it's not too expensive (but it is) is a harder sport to just TRY OUT

it's not hard to try out, it just takes about 18 months to get to enjoy the fucking thing

it's easy to pitch and putt, or to go to a driving range. that's like saying it's tough to find the equivalent of wembley so football is inaccessible. paintball is inaccessible.

pitch and putt and driving range is easy that's true point. and crazygolf i guess..

football you can practice skills at home.. you'd need a high ceiling/a garden to practice golf at home?

paintball IS inaccessible although there's laserquest or counterstrike...

10-pin bowling is 'accessible' but gets expensive due to the practice factor.

eh i dunno practicing football skills at home leaves you with 11 tricksters. you needs to have 8+ participants with a decent open space, allowing jumpers for goalposts.

Also I guess having 400 yards or so of space just for you and your mate to hit a tiny ball into a hole kind of fits in with the whole kind of personal wealth grandeur

There's this novel concept, ken, might not catch on: the public park? Any expanse of grass will do, used to see guys practising their golf shots in the grassy bit behind the high flats where I grew up.

eh that could be dodge enough tho?

taking up chunks, also bystanders prob not quite prepared for impending projectiles.

American football is EXTREMELY expensive. All those pads cost a lot of money plus you have to have practice uniforms which the school team doesn't pay for! Then there are medical expenses. I'm not sure how many people who like football know how much it costs. People's families put money into their kids because they have talent. Also it might help you get into college. Yet people get sentimental about football as an "everyman" game. I don't hate football, but I do know how expensive it is.

Thing about golf is that in some industries you ought to learn it because "the guys" play on weekends or their days off. I suppose that is elitist but golf is fun! Golf as a "rich guys" thing is so old. So many jobs are in the city now and people who spend sixty hours a week "downtown" aren't inclined to make golf a regular part of their life. I don't think it's part of the culture.

It is "expensive" if you don't have much money for anything but a few movies and DVDs on the weekend, i.e. working class or lower. Golf is "expensive". So is owning a motorcycle or a boat, which a lot of trailer dwellers do.

There are a number of courses in the Toronto area where you can play nine for under $30; yesterday I played a full 18 for $32. Golf is expensive if you want to join a club (a few thousand, I think, for most courses), or if you want to be any good--you've got to play regularly. But to hack around five or six times a summer, using the same clubs you've used for years, it's pretty reasonable. Even when I add the cost of losing a ball every two three holes.

each playing field for golf is a huge piece of land given a constant and immaculate level of care, of course it's conservative, it's like the versailles of sports

otm, was surprised that hadn't been mentioned yet

MLS low voter turnout seems surprising to me?

i bought a some new fairway woods last summer, around $600 for the three. It was my present for getting a severance package...im far from conservative.

Setup costs for me to get into golf:

€5 to play pitch and putt, clubs supplied

moving up to local course, for the first while, €10-5 per round, borrowed clubs

After deciding I liked it, €100 membership for the year on beginner's pass
second hand set for about €50,shoes, other whatnots- prob another €50

I dunno, that's not what i'd call a middle class set of outlays for a year's worth of passtime

As I said, depends where you are

And I think it's bi-partisan at the presidential level; most every one of them since Eisenhower has gotten flack for playing too much golf.

haven't been a lot of poor presidents lately

for a given definition of 'poor'

Right--was referring to the thread title.

oic

I think it's more institutionally conservative than politically conservative.

immaculate level of care

Well, maybe on some courses.

I'm so confused

Institutionally, yeah. As I'm sure has been pointed out above: golf (above and beyond hacking around) costs money, money wants to protect itself, golf is conservative. I guess I meant that if you take the money as a given, and look at presidents, there's a mixed bag across the political spectrum. Baseball's also extremely conservative institutionally.

It seems expensive but I associate the situation in clemenza's post with a bunch of old men in my family who were union-type guys (who were born downright poor). I always thought of golf as upwardly mobile not "rich".

The thing that annoys me is the the marketing literature for a lot of vacation spots. A lot of times the literature or website implies "why would you come here if there is no golf," as if there is no natural beauty or history or any other kind of recreation. I think there are right and wrong places for a golf course or "golf resort".

a couple friends of mine took their dad golfing in Bermuda a few years back for his birthday, it was $170 a person.

My town has like 3 golf courses, from snooty private to totally public and $8 a game. No biggie.

Arguable perk of being from a resort town: golf, tennis, sailing, water-skiing, etc are fair game to all because local employees are the ones who make all the fun possible by working at and maintaining the places...of course they get free pointers/court time/course time/used equip/etc out of it in addition to a paycheck.

my town has one public course, its $13 and its a dump. I've played some decent course, but I refuse to spend over $60.

I mentioned this on the other tiger thread but I used to caddy at a snooty private club, my experiences there would probably not do defenders of golf any favors

spill

well I could count all the black members of the club on one hand

My dad plays golf once a week at the $8 course, but it's only a placeholder for his luge practice in the wintertime. Golf vs luge? Golf is goin DOWNNNNNNNNNN.

I will admit though that being on a golf course at 6 AM in the morning when it's all dewy and misty is pretty wordsworthian even if it's all fake and done on borrowed water

Late '70s, I worked in the backshop cleaning clubs at a fairly expensive private club--not Pebble Beach or anything, but a pretty highly regarded course. The members were so cheap! They thought they were doing you a great favour if they tipped you 35 cents to buy a can of pop. Even in 1978, we were not impressed.

Rich people in tight-fisted bastards shockah!

golf classic- golf clubhouses- no thanks i'm already on the way to the pub tbh

Ha i caddied to at a snotty club when I was 13. I caddied for Bob Cousy and carried two bags for 18 holes....he tipped me a shiny new quarter. Judge Smails mother fucker.

I think it is hard to generalize about golf, there are different cultures associated with it. Personally I hate that whole "package deal" thing. It probably varies depending on what part of the country you are from.

Resort jobs: people kill to get those plum jobs!! They don't pay a whole lot but the implication is that "you are lucky enough to live and work in a leisure zone."

My dad learned golf by working at a country club as a poor teenager. He got so good that as an adult he played some pretty nice places. Of course he was better at it than everyone else so that's probably how he got a pass.

You can probably bump this one as well. Hello golf, it's the twenty-first century and you're still run by cunts!

what happened to warrant this bump?

your blogs, read them

You can probably bump this one as well. Hello golf, it's the twenty-first century and you're still run by cunts!

― AVANT-ELECTRO METAL IST KRIIIIIIIEEEEGGGGGGGGGGGG (acoleuthic), Sunday, August 15, 2010 7:35 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

calling golf out for this when you're a soccer fan...

every sport ever yes I know but srsly