Open Mic: Do Golf and NASCAR Make the Cut?

What separates a “sport” from a “competition”? Who should be considered an “athlete”?

Following his heroic and gutsy championship performance at the 2008 U.S. Open, the respect, admiration, and legend of Tiger Woods has ballooned.

On the same weekend that Kobe Bryant shrunk in the spotlight of the NBA Finals, Tiger claimed a stranglehold on the title of best competitor in the sporting world.  As a result, numerous commentaries have praised Tiger as the best athlete worldwide, too.

But hold up!  Not so fast.

Although I’m a Tiger Woods fan, I'm stuck on the term "athlete."  As far as competitors go, Tiger is a beast.  He has few peers in terms of clutchness, mental toughness, and showing up large on the big stage.

But can he be compared to freakish athletes like LeBron James and Reggie Bush? Does Tiger stack up with the cream of the crop in terms of strength, speed, leaping ability, and overall athletic explosiveness?

I can’t answer that, because golf isn’t a medium that demonstrates or requires much athletic prowess—and I haven’t seen Tiger compete in any other sport.

I’ve played golf and the most strenuous aspect for me was toiling in the hot sun for four hours and lugging my own golf bag and clubs.  I’ve endured more taxing afternoons of yardwork.

And professional golfers don’t even carry their own gear!  With that alone, I disqualify golf as a sport.  If the framework of a competition saves you sweat by employing another stiff to do the heavy lifting, then that event is not a sport.  So, I do distinguish “sports” from “competitions.”  Golf is a competition.

There’s no question that golf requires a great deal of skill, practice, and other sport-like qualities. But if you can be a premier competitor while possessing a modicum of athletic ability, then you are engaged in a competition, not a sport—and you are a competitor, not an athlete.

The John Dalys and Craig Stadlers of the world are hardly athletic specimens, yet they are major champions.

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