Are golfers more intelligent than other athletes?

[Patch]

7 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Yes, I think good golfers are smarter than the average athlete in other sports of equal ability. The reason is pretty simple, it does not ONLY depend upon strength agility and flexibility.

 

Intelligence is used to decide how to make a shot, not just to execute it but to solve the problem before the execution of the shot, and I'm not convinced most other sports have that same dependency for performance?

 

The question is on average and not individually.

 

Well here's a discussion. . .http://ask.metafilter.com/30486/Which-athletes-are-the-smartest

Good golfers are in my experience more intelligent.

 

 

Compare a good golfer with, say, an NFL QB who can read defenses. Both have college degrees. Difference is the golfer reads greens. Both are intelligent in their own right. 

[Lihu]

16 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

And other sports don't?   I think golfers need to stop this nonsense of  "we are holier than thou attitude."   Golf is not the hardest game around.  Golfers are not more intelligent than others.  I watched and played many different individual and team sports (boxing, soccer, basketball, ping pong, badminton, golf, bowling, ....).    I have seen no evidence that golfers are more intelligent than other athletes.   I've seen no evidence that it is the hardest game around (it just feels that way).  

Generalizing, stereotyping - that's what you are doing if you believe the nonsense.  

I agree that someone who hits OB three times a round on the same exact holes every time he plays is not really using the gray matter enough.

The statement included only "good golfers" not your run of the mill golfer.

 

13 minutes ago, Patch said:

Compare a good golfer with, say, an NFL QB who can read defenses. Both have college degrees. Difference is the golfer reads greens. Both are intelligent in their own right. 

The argument is not based upon if they have a degree or not, it's asking if golfers are smarter on average than other sports athletes.

Some athletes doing other sports have degrees and some don't, while most golfers seem to have one. Sports, in general, takes time from studying, and I am doubting that a successful athlete would be a strong computer engineer (or any field of study that takes a lot of time and effort). He might barely pass his subjects and be a second string player at the same time. I doubt that he could be a very successful design engineer just as I doubt a nerd CE major from MIT could rush 50yards in D1 college football.

[Dave325]

I have seen it all over the board... Every sport requires some level of intelligence/thought process, common sense/reasoning (different than intelligence) and cognitive decision making. What makes a great golfer? Natural talent, intelligence.... Or could it be done on passion, desire, and persistence... Regardless of IQ?

[jbishop15]

Nope. 

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, Dave325 said:

I have seen it all over the board... Every sport requires some level of intelligence/thought process, common sense/reasoning (different than intelligence) and cognitive decision making. What makes a great golfer? Natural talent, intelligence.... Or could it be done on passion, desire, and persistence... Regardless of IQ?

 

1 minute ago, jbishop15 said:

Nope. 

Agree.

[rkim291968]

1 minute ago, Lihu said:

Some athletes doing other sports have degrees and some don't, while most golfers seem to have one. Sports, in general, takes time from studying, and I am doubting that a successful athlete would be a strong computer engineer as well. He might barely pass his subjects and be a second string player at the same time. I doubt that he could be a very successful design engineer just as I doubt a nerd CE major could rush 50yards.

At pro level, it takes a team of coaches, managers to develop a world class athlete.  The athlete (golfer or otherwise) may make his/her own decision or not.   Sure, smart ones have better chance at bubbling up to the top but it is not limited to one sport over another.   The truth is, "intelligence" is so subjective that this kind of question has really no meaning in reality.  

[jbishop15]

Just now, rkim291968 said:

At pro level, it takes a team of coaches, managers to develop a world class athlete.  The athlete (golfer or otherwise) may make his/her own decision or not.   Sure, smart ones have better chance at bubbling up to the top but it is not limited to one sport over another.   The truth is, "intelligence" is so subjective that this kind of question has really no meaning in reality.  

Golfers have teams of coaches and managers as well. Nearly all have a swing coach, a personal trainer, a dietician, an agent, a manger, etc. 

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

At pro level, it takes a team of coaches, managers to develop a world class athlete.  The athlete (golfer or otherwise) may make his/her own decision or not.   Sure, smart ones have better chance at bubbling up to the top but it is not limited to one sport over another.   The truth is, "intelligence" is so subjective that this kind of question has really no meaning in reality.  

 

This is one definition. . .

Quote

Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving.

 

Not sure how else it can be defined?

[rkim291968]

1 minute ago, Lihu said:

 

This is one definition. . .

 

That's what I quoted to support my argument in earlier post.  

What's next?  Golfers attract better looking wives?   Come on, folks.  This is silly.

[Patch]

My phone wont let me multi quote.

The ideal that intelligence helps decide how to make a shot, execute the shot, and solves the problem to execute the shot is true through out most sports. Just substitute the words "pitch", "play", etc...... for the word "shot".

On another note. Are world class chess players considered athletes? You can substitute the word "move" for "shot" on this one. 

[rkim291968]

4 minutes ago, jbishop15 said:

Golfers have teams of coaches and managers as well. Nearly all have a swing coach, a personal trainer, a dietician, an agent, a manger, etc. 

Yes.   I didn't say anything to the contrary.   What I was alluding to was that it's the collective intelligence that makes a top athlete, not the individual necessarily.

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

That's what I quoted to support my argument in earlier post.  

What's next?  Golfers attract better looking wives?   Come on, folks.  This is silly.

What specific things do you find silly? Please elaborate. . .

[jbishop15]

Just now, rkim291968 said:

Yes.   I didn't say anything to the contrary.   What I was alluding to was that it's the collective intelligence that makes a top athlete, not the individual necessarily.

 I am such an idiot. I totally misread your paragraph. Sorry about that. 

[rkim291968]

2 minutes ago, Lihu said:

What specific things do you find silly? Please elaborate. . .

Arguing over one set of athletes are more intelligent others, especially, given the general definition of "intelligence."    It's like arguing SW engineers are smarter than HW engineers. 

[Dave325]

2 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

That's what I quoted to support my argument in earlier post.  

What's next?  Golfers attract better looking wives?   Come on, folks.  This is silly.

It is silly. Not to state something OT, but something different about golf and other sports is the playing field.....  Most other sports (with the exception of a few others) are played on a court and controlled environment. Every golf course is different and on any given day. Just a thought.

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

Arguing over one set of athletes are more intelligent others, especially, given the general definition of "intelligence."  

 

Quote

Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving.

These are all reasonably measurable attributes. I'm not sure how they are so subjective to you?

 

[Golfingdad]

Just now, Lihu said:

 

These are all measurable attributes. I'm not sure how they are so subjective to you?

 

The subjectiveness would come from how you weigh them, I believe.  If the golfers excel in understanding, but the football players excel in memory and the hockey players excel in communication ... if they all equally excelled in those categories, how would you determine which one is more intelligent?

[rkim291968]

Just now, Lihu said:

 

These are all measurable attributes. I'm not sure how they are so subjective to you?

 

How are they measurable?   HI is measurable.  Baseball ERA is measurable.  Scores per minutes can be measured.   How do you measure "self awareness?"