I agree. If golf is a sport, then so is billiards and darts. Sports to me require some innate mental abilities combined with physical action.  Anything else is a highly skilled hobby. Granted, there is a certain way to hold a golf club, pool cue, or dart, but by no means is it a physically demanding action. Let's see what the average layperson must be physically fit to do: Football - check Baseball - check (you try throwing six innings or fielding a short hopper) Soccer - check Hockey - check Basketball - check Tennis - yes, you do have to actually work hard to win at this, check Golf - um, I don't think so Bowling - hehe, sorry This is not to say that golf is easy.  I sure the heck am not any good at it.  I also can't fly a plane or perform brain surgery; neither of which (I hope) are considered sports.
 
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XO/LTC Fury/VEA/TADATH/VE [PoC][SotE:HC][SotE:VEA][IOC]
Company Commander
Shopkeeper - Imperial Center

you drop the ball, hit the ball,walk toward the ball, hit the ball again, continue the procedure until the ball goes to a hole. Then drop the ball again, hit it again... pls repeat the action moves until your shoulder dislocated, broke your back or faint because the burning sun

Golf is a Joke, that's all i need to say

Hehehe, nice argument    Personally, I consider Chess a sport, if done right, it's just demanding on the mind as Football done right is on the body 
 
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Argon Viper
IW COL Argon Viper{ret}
"History is on the move, those who cannot keep up will watch from a distance, and those who get in our way will not watch at all" - Grand Admiral Thrawn
"In combat, second place is only the last to die."- Anonymous
"Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses" - Carl G Jung
"The only thing that will never change is that everything will change" - Argon Viper

Yes, and we also play while sick, with broken bones, and the like.
 
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NTO/LCM JMac/ISD Overlord/Raptor 9/(=A=)(=SA=)(MC1)

"Court is in session, a verdict is in.  No appeal on the docket today, just my own sin.  The walls cold and pale, the cage made of steel.  Screams fill the room, alone I drop and kneel. Silnce now the sound, my breath the only motion around.  Demons cluttering around, my face showing no emotion.  Shackled by my sins and expecting no return.  Here there is no pennance, my skin begins to burn."
~Creed

I never said it was MY opinion. I only speak for our friends from "Down Under" and elsewhere. hehe
 
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ADJ:NTO/EFM/COM Darkhawk/Aegis 1-3 /Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=A=)(=SA=)(=JCPA=)(=SCPA=)(=FCO=)[LoC][BRC][VC:Ebony][KC]

DLS/CL/SG Darkhawk/Eagle 2-1/mSSD Atrus/VEDJ/VE/[CR]

I shall speak for my country (which, incidentally, INVENTED the god awful sport they call "golf"). A rugby player won't play American Football because it is a totally differant game. To play American Football you need to be pretty darn heavy and have a tough chest. To play rugby you need to be good at a variety of things - some players are heavy, but you also have the 6"5' tall guys weighing under 150 pounds who can smash through the opposing teams line no problemo. We also think its a terrible game because of the lack of teamwork. Not teamwork as in.. working as a team.. but as in looking out for each other. I played rugby once (stop laughing..) or twice (please stop laughing..), and one of our players was punched in the knobbly bits by a player in the opposing team. So.. well, I won't go into it, but five minutes later he could barely crawl off the pitch. Yes, maybe you play American Football when you're sick. Thats really not that impressive, really, when you look at the statistics - the British Army has had more of its soldiers in hospital in the last 5 years thanks to rugby than it had thanks to the Falklands War. The Australians are similar. Rugby and American Football are about as similar as coffee and tea. Padding you require, because football is 50% scaring the living shiznito out of the other team.. whereas rugby is just making sure they'll never have babies. Oh, and golf? Well, its a game. It is a show of mental skill, not of physical skill. Therefore it is a game. And my great great great grandad probably invented it.. And MD, golf is like chess. Saying "I bet you haven't actually played it" is rubbish, because anyone can play it - thats how it was invented to be. It just takes mental skill to play it well.
 
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        Captain Aaron "Bear" Le'pue, Naval Instructor & VE Today Chief Editor
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     INS/CAP Aaron "Bear" Le'pue/Flight School/Training Fleet/ISD II Crusader/VEN/VE
(=A=) (=SA=) (=MA=) (=FOCE=) (=JCPA=) (=SCPA=) [BRC] [BRC] [LSM] [LoC] [NDM]
                                                        ~~~
                                      Bear : [email protected]
                             Vast Empire Today : [email protected]

Let me put it this way, if the weather is good enough to play golf I'd rather be out sacking an english castle.  But since there are no english castles near enough to where I live I can't. /me stuffs his inner viking back in his cage To me a sport is something that doesn't stop just because of a little rain or snow. I know some golfers who don't stop because of rain or snow, I know baseball players who wouldn't stop if they had the choice, and yet they ussually can't compete once the weather turns a bit sour. But then again I live in a part of this fine nation where it rains in one day during the nine month long rainy season then desserts get in one year.  So if you are going to play a sport around here you pretty much either restrict yourself to the three months where it barely rains, or play through the torential down pour of the rainy season.
 
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RA(U) Daishi COSOS
"If we had all knowladge then why would we seek what we already know and if we had no knowladge then how could we even ask the question?"  Plato
"Indeceant exposure is fun." Sonatina
"There are at least three sides to any situation." Me

Old men play tennis, too.  And don't try to tell me that's not a sport.
 
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Rear Admiral Riel Fury
Navy Commander In Chief
Krath Prophet(ess), Dark Lord of the Krath, Cult Member in Elite Griffen Sect
Give in to your hatred.  Give in to your anger.  Give in to the Dark Side.

Also, old men usually don't win championshiops and such, younger abnd fitter players do. 
 
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NTO/LCM JMac/ISD Overlord/Raptor 9/(=A=)(=SA=)(MC1)

You may see me as only a drunken, vice ridden gnome whose only companions are pimps and girls from the brothels.  But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being.
~Moulin Rouge

I have smoked and played tennis at the same time...
 
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Rear Admiral Riel Fury
Navy Commander In Chief
Krath Prophet(ess), Dark Lord of the Krath, Cult Member in Elite Griffen Sect
Give in to your hatred.  Give in to your anger.  Give in to the Dark Side.

Maybe we all need to agree on terminology. People are using the terms "sport" and "game" interchangeably while others have drawn a distinction between the two. Personally, I consider a sport a combination of physical and mental abilities in a 60/40 combination.  In that category I would place your traditional team sports (soccer, football, baseball, basketball, rugby, etc.) and your highly athletic individual sports like track and field events, tennis, etc. This would place games of mental skill propelled by physical acts in another category.  I don't think anyone is arguing that golf is not hard.  Those of us who have tried can admit that there is a lot of things to learn to playing it. Going back to an earlier example, it is also very hard to perform heart surgery as well; another thing requiring serious mental preparation with physical actions to carry it out.  But until they have a surgery game show on TLC, I'm hoping no one is classifying that as a game, much less a sport. Anyone else have a structure for this they wish to elaborate on?
 
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XO/LTC Fury/VEA/TADATH/VE [PoC][SotE:HC][SotE:VEA][IOC]
Company Commander
Shopkeeper - Imperial Center

Easy enough.  I've done that lots of times.  Video games are very demanding on the finger joints, but that doesn't make gaming a sport.
 
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NTO/LCM JMac/ISD Overlord/Raptor 9/(=A=)(=SA=)(MC1)

You may see me as only a drunken, vice ridden gnome whose only companions are pimps and girls from the brothels.  But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being.
~Moulin Rouge

That is a hard one.  It requires strength, stamina, and dexterity, but I see no way of fairly scoring it.  Kinda like FOS.
 
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NTO/LCM JMac/ISD Overlord/Raptor 9/(=A=)(=SA=)(MC1)

You may see me as only a drunken, vice ridden gnome whose only companions are pimps and girls from the brothels.  But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being.
~Moulin Rouge

I still don't agree with you.  I don't agree with anyone.  Everyone simply either agrees with me or is wrong.
 
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NTO/LCM JMac/ISD Overlord/Raptor 9/(=A=)(=SA=)(MC1)

You may see me as only a drunken, vice ridden gnome whose only companions are pimps and girls from the brothels.  But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being.
~Moulin Rouge