This particular debate is going to rankle on and on till the cows come home. And of course we will always have to agree to disagree.  However, we still need to take a good look and I leave you to be the best judges.  Just imagine this; the best football player that ever lived; Pele today dribbling past a John Terry just to pick one of the better known defenders, or Carles Puyol.  Or a Carlos Alberto of the Brazil 70’s stopping a Thierry Henri, or a Ronaldo / Ronaldino today.   No way! 

Moving on, a Rod Laver or Bjorn Bjorg can only beat Pete Sampras, Agassi, Nadal or Roger Federer in a game console, in real life they do not have a chance in hell.  Under any circumstance you can think of, it will not happen. If Henry Cooper or Larry Holmes who knocked down and beat Muhammad Ali (the greatest ever) respectively, step into the ring with David Haye, Klitshco to mention slightly respectable heavyweights, they will be carried out in body bags.  Anyway, some say boxing is not a sport, but a fight, so what does that make boxers. Fighters not sportsmen?

Where am I going with this? 

OK.  Last week I watched a 60 year old man; Tom Watson that I heard the commentator say, recently had a hip replacement come within a single putt of winning a golf major; the British Open.  Incredible.  It was a spectacle to watch but as a sport, well it left a whole lot of unanswered questions for me. At one stage there were more buggies than golfers to transport them to their next tee’s.  With all due respect to the exponents of the game, and of course Tiger Woods.  At the playoff, Watson looked totally spent. He looked drained and in agony.  One can not readily say that he is fit, so can we then call him an athlete or sportsman?

Well, lets see what Wikipedia says a sportsman is;

A sportsperson (gendered as sportsman or sportswoman) or athlete is a person who participates regularly in a sport.

…Most professional athletes have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen.

Furthermore, what is a sport?  In Wikipedia;

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports (a common name for some card games and board games with little to no element of chance) and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors. Sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. Some view sports as differing from games based on the fact that there are usually higher levels of organization and profit (not always monetary) involved in sports

A game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mah-jongg solitaire). Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both.

I don’t play golf so can not tell you how physically demanding it is. It does look very mentally demanding though. So I can’t say how fit you need to be.  However, based on Tiger’s achievement and what he says (which I can’t argue with) that has helped him reach such giddy heights, it demands a lot physically.  Therefore, golfers are athletes in that case. Professional athletes to be precise and that brings me to a related issue. As professional athletes they are role models and should lead by example.  So imagine a football player coming out for the prematch pitch inspection or warm-up with a cigarette dangling in his mouth!. Or at the change of ends during the Wimbledon finals, Federer and Nadal instead of a banana reaching for their packs of cigarette, or cigar for that matter. 

Well, there is big John Daly, happy to display his enormous girth and merrily puffing away while taking part in majors.  Angel Cabrera a Us Open Champion apparently smokes on the golf course to calm his nerves. But these are supposedly professional athletes.  Do you now call them sportsmen?  um!

It is not only golf by the way. What about snooker, darts?  At least you are not allowed to drink alcohol anymore while throwing darts and playing snooker.  Thank Goodness.

Well, I think that’s enough for you to ponder.  What do you think?