You Overpaid Weenies! Golf Get Olympic Slammed, Part Deux

by Ryan Ballengee on Aug 19, 2009 10:58 AM EDT Comment 6 comments

Yesterday, we started our coverage of golf getting the Olympic Slam (pro wrestling reference) now that it has been recommended for the 2016 Games. In that post, we talked about perceptions of golf as socially and economically unequal, and its poor record of environmental stewardship.

Well, add a new one to the list. Golfers are overpaid weenies, says Aussie columnist Jon Tuxworth - who is apparently a HUGE softball fan.

[The Olympics are] an opportunity for those countries and athletes who barely attract an inch of newspaper column space outside of an Olympic year. It's for sports like swimming, hockey, track and field, diving, amateur boxing, et al. ...

It's not a place for overpaid, pampered golfers, many of whom get a big fat pay cheque just to turn up to a tournament.

Still, I wonder if golf's bid would have been successful at all had Tiger Woods not campaigned for its inclusion so dramatically.

The IOC knows all too well that Tiger's presence will be a lucrative coup for the 2016 Games. And unfortunately, money usually wins out over common sense.

Common sense? That like three countries are good at softball? I guess that's why softball didn't make Cameron McMillan's list of 10 sports that should be dropped from the Olympic - even though both softball and golf aren't in.

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Seems like every neo-socialist on the planet has their axe to grind about golf being in the Olympics. If it is not quoting the great font of wisdom and freedom, Hugo Chavez, it’s attacking golfers as being overpaid.

Sigh, they never change, but fortunately, most of the world ignores them. I don’t see this fellow taking on dressage, for example. He’s just adding to his carbon footprint by bellowing hot air.

by Old Man Par on Aug 19, 2009 11:03 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

lol – good stuff OMP ! That Hugo Chavez mention in the Times really bothered me – especially in an ethics column.

You left off the hero of the last Olympics – Michael Phelps and all the millions he had and was going to put into his bank account as a supposed amateur.

I still don’t agree that professional golf should be in the Olympics.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Aug 19, 2009 11:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Last week on NPR...

…they did a story about Chavez’s comments on golf. Turns out the reason he dislikes golf is because he tried it before, and he stinks. They even had a photo on their website:

Douchebag.

"Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose." - Winston Churchill

by turnover on Aug 19, 2009 12:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He handles that club like he handles his country

Gripped too tight and like a 10 year old.

by Cairo on Aug 19, 2009 5:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

^ That’s a grip befitting a Little League baseball player.

Ironically, Fidel’s henchman-in-chief, Che Guevera was a very talented golfer who loved the game.

by Old Man Par on Aug 19, 2009 1:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Love that jealousy

I love the disdain people have for the rich. It really is quaint.

People throw money at these guys to show up and play golf. Did I miss the part where they extort people like we see with some of the union thuggery present in this country? No, don’t think so.

I bought a ticket for a PGA Tour event last year. It cost me like $30 and I left with a smile on my face. I could care less what these guys make, because as long as I’m getting what I want out of it, then the Tour is doing something right.

I wish there was a universal text translator that would replace the word “overpaid” with “people who earn more in a year than I will in a lifetime” because that’s really what they’re saying.

I’m one of those guys too, and I say go Tiger, get your green my friend. I tend to view many rich people as something to aspire to, as opposed to something to resent. I guess I’m weird.

by Double Eagle on Aug 19, 2009 2:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

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