Nice post!

Living in the Middle East there are two predominate point of views about golf that I always here from people when I mention it.  The first is "ahh, you play that rich people game where they hit the ball around" and the other "Isn't that the old people game?"..

To be fair though,  this is only a game for people who are well off in the Middle East.. You will not find a golf course that you can play for less than $100 a round.. And forget about buying cheap clubs, or cheap golf balls.. Only high end stuff for sale..

I'm not sure if any of the views will ever change..  But with such a high barrier to entry and the almost non-existent coverage of golf (even with the Dubai tournaments that go on) the out look is not looking good in this part of the world anyway..

Thanks, it's interesting to hear of how golf was / is viewed in different countries.  I grew up on Long Island, NY and lived in Northern Virginia through my 20's and 30's.  I never thought of golf as a rich mans game until I started playing it regularly.  I'm sure the stigma existed then but because I was never really interested in it I didn't pay attention to it.

On 10/31/2015, 7:35:21, Abu3baid said:

To be fair though,  this is only a game for people who are well off in the Middle East.. You will not find a golf course that you can play for less than $100 a round.. And forget about buying cheap clubs, or cheap golf balls.. Only high end stuff for sale..

For places like Japan & Korea, $200 will be a low end course.   They have golf tours to go to other countries to play b/c that would be still cheaper to playing in their country.  

Great post. I only started playing 4 years ago at the "tender" age of 31. I didnt pick it up earlier because of the image of the game. For me it seemed to be a game just for the retired, the company directors and sales reps "sweetening the deal" and for those with a fetish for knit-wear (Sir Nick Faldo is guilty as charged)

Despite the demands of work, being a father (with our second on the way) and a few injuries i love this game. It has a hold on you and wont let go no matter how many times you say you are putting the clubs on Ebay.

Golf and old people...

Your post brought back some semi-painful memories of golf as the non-baseball sport. During the 1960s I played on my dad's little league baseball teams for five summers. In the final summer, I began caddying at a local club. Cash and possibly college loomed as inducements. Private clubs dangled the carrot of an Evans Caddie Scholarship for college (that place sixth graders heard they should want to go in the future).

Anyway. I also started playing golf. Baseball had not been kind to me - I practiced hard but wasn't very good and didn't get much playing time. So, I told Dad that summer that it would be my last for baseball.

He did not take my decision kindly. He said golf was OK for caddying for $$, but was a sissy sport for old - and rich - guys. Plus, golf involved gambling. He got upset when he found I was playing for fifty-cent Nassaus, and I was severely punished.

I switched country clubs going into my HS junior summer - that first club had about twice as many caddies as it needed. Number of loops and $$ improved, but I lost my vesting for the Evans Scholarship.

Dad also doubted the exercise benefits of golf. Some 15 years later Dad agreed to caddie for me while I played 18. By the hilly back nine, I was carrying my own bag as Dad was getting winded. (He was starting to have leg trouble by then, so I hardly gloated over events). I offered to show him how to hit shots, but he declined.

I better understood possible motivations of my father after seeing the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played. Shia LaBeouf plays Francis Ouimet, the blue-collar teen and caddie who upset English stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in the 1913 U.S. Open. Ouimet's father was less than supportive of his son, in part because he feared the upper class would never accept Francis, no matter how well he played.

When I was younger, golf was too slow.   I was into martial arts, baseball, basketball and hockey.   After I graduated high school, I took up motorcross.   Later, I transferred from motorcross to mountain biking.   I had dabbled a few times with golf but wasn't serious until about 4 years ago when a friend ask me to play a few times.   At a tender age of 54, I was hooked.  It is now my passion and I'm hoping to improve every day.   I'd like to say since I can't play those other sports, I play golf but the truth is, I like golf better than those.