USA Today hates golf

[Ben]

Here's an article all on the PGA email list got sent today. Pretty rediculous crap.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/...-universe.html

I almost hesitate in even posting the link and driving people to their site. But this is a fun/aggrevating read.

[iQuest Golfer]

I almost hesitate in even posting the link and driving people to their site. But this is a fun/aggrevating read.

It's the season for bashing golf and certainly a sign of the times with elitist

idiots (ooops! sorry, I promised my left-leaning brother I wouldn't call them idiots anymore) in the MSM. It's OK... I'll be walking the course on Firday and Saturday wrapped up in the sanctity of blessed fairways and greens. Fore!

[RocketSauce]

that writer must've gotten beat-up a lot when he was in school...what a turd

[Chilli Dipper]

I'm pretty liberal, but I still manage to deem golf as a superior way to spend a spring afternoon than whaling, organic farming, ultimate frisbee, or simply acting like a patronizing jerk. I guess there must be something wrong with me.

[Troof.]

wow. really?

[Big_M]

In a just and rightous universe the author would get struck by a golf ball while bicycling past the course, causing him to swerve his bicycle into a semi truck and be crushed and killed like the useless inscent that he is.

[Chilli Dipper]

In his next column, Robert Lipsyte is going to declare war on the next thing that embodies everything wrong with America—steak. It should come as no surprise that Bernie Madoff and his crooked Wall Street cronies often conducted their dirty dealings in (gasp) steakhouses! Not only that, it's coming to be the time of year where his friends start disappearing because they'd rather spend their weekends outside next to a grill, cooking a slab of beef over an open flame.

Steak is not a food. It's a socially acceptable way to avoid your spouse, do business while pretending not to do business, or imagine you have a purpose in life. As long as good people keep deluding themselves that browning a piece of meat is as grand as hunting a great white whale, nothing is ever going to change.

[Ceej]

Looks like a guy who tried to take up the game and failed miserably. He is also a tree hugger in every way possible.

[Prodigy]

this was probably the most ridiculous thing i have ever laid my eyes on. Golf has taught me more than 100 years of school ever could

[zeg]

That opinion piece was crap. I can't stand that all-too-common style of second (third?)-rate opinion page writers. Not sure about this guy (I couldn't bring myself to read carefully), but often I think it's a miserably failed attempt to come off as amusing. Sorry, dude, it's just pompous and obnoxious.

One point I'll agree with, though: golf courses do consume enormous quantities of water and potentially present environmental problems, particularly here in the southwest where dense grassy lawns are unnatural to begin with. I'm certainly not a land management expert, but I do think it's fair to ask whether golf courses are operating in a way that's compatible with the limited water supplies. We're operating very near to a severe water shortage here, so I hope people are operating the courses responsibly...

[Ben]

One point I'll agree with, though: golf courses do consume enormous quantities of water and potentially present environmental problems, particularly here in the southwest where dense grassy lawns are unnatural to begin with. I'm certainly not a land management expert, but I do think it's fair to ask whether golf courses are operating in a way that's compatible with the limited water supplies. We're operating very near to a severe water shortage here, so I hope people are operating the courses responsibly...

To answer this. Yes, SoCal is about to enter this water recession. Villaraigosa is implementing enormous cutbacks which homeowners, as well as golf courses will have to abide to staring this month. Using sprinkler systems only twice a week for no more than 15 minutes a time. And hand watering only before 9am and after 11pm. My superintendent has been pulling his hair out as to what to do, finally deciding on opening up the nozzles in the fairways to allow for the largest amount of water flow, while giving up on watering the rough all together. Golf courses around these parts are going to look rather odd in a while.

[David in FL]

The McPaper....... For those that also get their news from the Today Show and their political savvy from Oprah.

[Jay-Bird]

I'm quitting. I had no idea how much this "environmental nightmare, a waste of space, of fertilizer, of water" was contributing to the decline of America...

Nevermind the fact that my home course reuses water from it's own ponds, and uses lake water which comes from a non-potable, man-made lake on the course's western bounadary to water the fairways. Nevermind the fact that my home course deems all native grass "environmentally sensitive." Nevermind the fact that the course's southern boundary is part of a wildlife preserve.

Then again, "golf is not even a game. It's a socially acceptable way to avoid your spouse, do business while pretending not to do business, or imagine you have a purpose in life."

Nevermind the fact that I don't talk shop on the course, ever. Nevermind the fact that my wife often walks with me. Nevermind the fact that my purpose in life is to do as much good for humanity while I'm alive...

The fact that Madoff played golf is about as relevant to Golf's value as the fact that Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were heavy smokers. Apparently cigarettes and cigars saved the world!

Robert Lipsyte, What a cynical douchebag.

[pjsnyc]

To Robert 'Dipsh*t' Lipsyte:
Piss off.

-Peter

[Clambake]

So, the author thinks that " Golf is an environmental nightmare, a waste of space, of fertilizer, of water. Think of the vegetables that could be grown on those useless lawns, bathed in pesticides to keep those fairways looking unnaturally like carpeting. Think of the lovely meadows, walking trails, wildlife sanctuaries. "? How about a slight rewrite:

"USA Today is an intellectual nightmare, a waste of mental abilities, of trees, and of newsprint. Think of the minds that could be nurtured on those useless pages, bathed in advertisements to keep its publishers wealthy and morons like Lipsyte in cafe moccas. Think of the lovely prose, inspiring stories, and thought-provoking opinions."

Pretty amazing position taken by a newspaper that pretty much started the decline of journalism all on its own.......

[WilsonWedgeMan]

wait a minute fellows... in all seriousness.. the man has a right to print what he wants. the man has a right to dislike golf, or any other game he wishes. His opinions are worth no less than yours/mine, even if we disagree( and I do). his ranglings in a newspaper column are par for the couse in todays' media.. however, what I'm getting from reading subsequent posts on his column, are not par for the course. I know many of you should and will disregard( not disrespect) his opinion, especially when approaching the 1st tee on future rounds...maybe it's me, but I truely expect less "spite" from my fellow golfers... we ARE better than he's trying to portray us and the game we love. we can disagree without being disagreeable....
plus, we have the same right to send in letters to his editors in rebutal, as he does to write his column....may not get printed, but ya never know....

[The Rambler]

I'm going to find where he lives and take my sealskin covered hummer and give him a piece of my mind, after I finish hunting endangered animals in the African wildlife reserves.

That guy's a joke. He shouldn't be writing for the USA Today anymore

[Prodigy]

I'm going to find where he lives and take my sealskin covered hummer and give him a piece of my mind, after I finish hunting endangered animals in the African wildlife reserves.

one of the best posts ive ever seen lol