Michael Lewis on Tiger and Golf: Editors' Blog: Golf Digest

Michael Lewis on Tiger and Golf

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Comments

There's an obvious need for some physical activity that can pass itself off as a sport in which rich, important people can easily participate, and simulate the motions of a pro, without fear of total humiliation. Michael Lewis

I liked everything Michael Lewis, author of "Moneyball" and "Blind Side" until I read his rant on golf today. (Thanks to Tony Wong for pointing it out). Lewis calls golf a "faux sport". Oh, Michael, say it isn't so:

The striking thing about the recent U.S. Open wasn't that Tiger Woods won it playing on a broken leg. The striking thingwas how much he -- and the golfing world -- clearly relished the idea of Tiger Woods playing on a broken leg.
As he limped and grimaced up fairways and around doglegs, with the crowd and the cameras lusting for every wince-laden drive, he was no longer just golfing. He was elevating golf to the status it so desperately seeks: the status of a genuine athletic event.

Odd that at a time when Woods has been mentioned as one of the top athletes in the world, Lewis goes so wrongly in the opposite direction. But then, he has a point to make.

Rich, important people often lack athletic ability, and so any faux sport would need to be doable without balance or dexterity or coordination. Many rich important people are also fat and physically lazy -- and so the faux sport must also be doable with a minimum of exertion.

It would be a plus, for instance, if it could be done, without shame, while riding around in a little electric cart.

Enter golf. If it didn't exist, some rich, important person would have had to invent it for himself.

It gets worse. Michael, walk 36 with me at Ballybunion and we'll see what's a sport.

Please, all you non-athletes out there, tell me what you'd say to Michael Lewis.

--Bob Carney

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Archived Comments (2) Click to expand

While, in the past, professional golfers may have appeared less than athletic, the game has evolved. Because of Tiger Woods, golf played at its highest levels is definitely a sport and its participants, athletes. Michael Lewis contempt for the game and its participants, characterizing them as wealthy, delusional nonathletic, is an unoriginal attempt at populism (ie. when in doubt, torch the rich). Funny coming from a man who receives millions in advance fees for his books, has a degree from Princeton and an economics degree from the London School of Economics. People play golf for many reasons, some for exercise, others for socializing, yet others for their mental health. Whatever the reason, golf deserves better treatment than given it by a self-important hypocrite such as Michael Lewis. You can tell he is not a golfer because golf requires an honesty and integrity that Lewis lacks. Any man who would sell out his co-workers like Lewis has doesn't have the chops to criticize golf.

Posted by extaca June 25, 2008 3:39 PM

It brings to light what I have been saying for ages now. All the people in the world who have a stake in the game of golf need to make an effort to take golf to the masses instead of limiting it to a niche audience. The reason why the game is seeing massive growth in Asia is not because of a sudden love for the sport but because of the number of millionaires that the region churns out year in year out and the urge of those people to associate themselves with something that will give them the stamp of approval that they have made it to the big league.

Hopefully some of the players out there winning on various tours around the world can change that image but it is difficult.

Golf magazines more often than not fill up pages with stories about golf vacation spots, fashion and lifestyle in the game of golf and treat it is an effective tool for corporate mingling. Most of them ignore the sport (except the few good magazines of course ;-) )

The lovers of the game need to take some note of Michael Lewis’ points. Look at the number of pot bellied people huffing and puffing away at a cigar walking the course each day. Do we really want the sport to be associated with such an image. Is that how we should treat the sport? No wonder then that the game is completely dependant on Tiger Woods to bring in the viewers right now. He is an athlete and we need more ambassadors like him, even half as good as him would do!

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Posted by andybrown June 26, 2008 9:09 AM