Chicago Public Golf

Hey, the Sox open at home next Monday against the Cleveland Indians and I have a feeling that Cleveland ace C.C. Sabathia will be on the mound at some point. Yes, it’s the same C.C. Sabathia that gave up golf this spring so he wouldn’t get injured again.

I’m serious. Harken back to last year when Urlacher quit golf to prevent injury. Well, it seems that football players aren’t the only ones bitten by the injury bug from the nasty sports and gaming pursuit known as golf. In the March 16, 2007 issue of GolfWorld, John Strege talked with Sabathia who says that his stint on the DL for the last two Aprils was because of golf. I quote:

“So I’m going to give up golfing, and let’s see if I can make it through April this year.” Sabathia, who stands 6-foot-7 and weighs in the vicinity of 300 pounds, presumably takes an aggressive swipe at the ball, claiming to hit it 300 yards. “I shoot in the 90s,” he told the paper. “It’s not worth it for me to go out and shoot 90 then go on the disabled list.”

Well, I can’t disagree with you tough guy. Good luck on getting better.

If these injuries start to accumulate, I may eventually have to start calling golf a sport (versus a sports and gaming pursuit). If danger and the physical toll of performing the action are any measure of whether a game graduates to a sport, golf would certainly qualify in this aspect as a sport.

Did you catch Sterling Sharpe’s interview in the Trib this morning? It’s in the Out Loud with Steve Rosenbloom section.

Sterling Sharpe was born in Chicago and raised in Georgia. I have always been a fan of his NFL work on ESPN and he still does stuff for the NFL Network and NBC. I became even a bigger fan about a year ago when I was listening to Joe Theisman talk about Sterling’s golf game on Mike and Mike. Theisman says that Sterling is a golf junkie, practices constantly, and keeps detailed records of every round.

Fast forward to this morning. As soon as I saw the Sterling Sharpe item, I hoped that there would be a golf reference. He did not disappoint. Here it is, in Sterling’s words via Steve Rosenbloom:

America is full of liars, and here’s why I say that. America says, “You know, I want to get good at golf,” but they’ll stand on the driving range for half an hour and talk to their buddy while they hit balls, and they’ll talk to their buddy on the putting green while they hit balls. I can’t do that. I don’t bring that to the table. I approach it like it’s my job.

Yeah baby, you my man! Just another great athlete consumed by the challenges of golf. He goes a little overboard with the whole “Americans are liars” thing, but I get his point.

So, I grab the Trib today as I’m ordering up my sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit at McD’s in Oak Brook (it’s always better there). Like the Neanderthal that I am, I go to the sports page first. Making matters worse, I even read the Trib sports from back to front because I like to start with articles that are short and not very demanding. While my eyes were first drawn to the Anna Benson World Series of Poker story (it was top center), it didn’t take me long to get to Bears Bits (by John Mullin and K.C. Johnson) and the story of Urlacher quitting golf.

Urlacher says about the game of golf, “I tried quitting last summer, but I couldn’t do it. So I gave it up this summer, and so far I haven’t had any problems.” Those “problems,” he is talking about are injury problems.

This is great for a couple of reasons. First of all, Urlacher is probably one of the toughest dudes of our generation. He is an All-Pro linebacker for arguably the toughest defense in the league. How is it, I ask you, that one of the baddest dudes in the land is quitting the sport of Phil Mickelson and Corey Pavin because he is afraid of hurting his hammy whammy? Well, because it is a sport, and if you think it’s less demanding on your body because some fat dudes and waif-like males excel at it, you are wrong.

Listen to all of the detractors of “golf as sport”! Golf isn’t a sport because you don’t sweat! Golf isn’t a sport because there is no pain! You can’t get injured driving around on a golf cart all day! Hah, there you go. I say to you detractor-man, strap 35 lbs on your back, walk five or six miles over hill-and-dale during the dog days of summer, and stop every few moments to perform a complex, violent, unnatural physical movement. Then, after about four hours of that, tell me golf is not a sport whilst I peel your sorry ass off the ground. Or better yet, don’t put yourself through that; just ask Urlacher if you need some confirmation.

Second, I love that he tried to quit last summer, but he couldn’t do it. Like some junky looking for his next fix…just another athlete looking for a competitive outlet. Golf sucks you in and consumes your life to the point of jeopardizing your job, family, friends, and health (physical and mental). But you still do it, even though it hurts you and your loved ones, because just the chance of sticking an eight iron from 145 yards to a tucked pin, over water, on a sun-baked green on the last hole of your match is worth waiting for.