Is golf evil? Depends whom you ask

Golf is vile, most of us would agree, at least some of the time, but Time magazine's Ishaan Tharoor has rearranged the letters and pronounced it evil.

Tharoor produced a list, Top 10 Evil Sports, and placed golf sixth, just after bullfighting and before poker (poker?).

"Apart from being the sport of choice for scheming politicians and fat-cat businessmen," Tharoor wrote, "golf is quite frankly a waste of space. It devours the public commons, swallows up water...and indulges middle-class ennui the world over. Stray golf balls take 1,000 years to decompose. And for what? A sport that, more than most, reinforces tiresome social hierarchies through its rarefied traditions and myriad country clubs."

Wow.

Golf, it seems, was the impetus for the list, based on this query he posted on Twitter: "So if i said golf was an 'evil sport,' what others would fit the category?"

Of course, some might conclude that the whole thing was done in jest. The giveaway is No. 1 on his list: Soccer.

Then again, if you've ever sat through a scoreless soccer game, you might be inclined to agree.

-- John Strege