In my recent challenge to try and get in better shape I have spent hours on the treadmill during poor weather and when the elements permit I’ll hit the trails in my area favored by runners and walkers alike. Of course standard equipment is my phone and earphones as I need some company and emotional support in my ears as I trudge along trying to not to think of the better things I could be doing.
Morning sports talk radio and my music library are my normal selections but recently I broadened my listening selections to include a few podcasts. After all, there is only so much sports blabber and Billy Joel that even I can take.
So a quick Google search of “podcast” brought me to “Revisionist History” Malcolm Gladwell’s series of podcasts. Gladwell is one of the most renowned writers of our day with five New York Times bestsellers including Outliers: The Story of Success and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.
Gladwell is certainly an “out of the box thinker”. He sees things very differently than the majority of people do.
In his season two podcast “A Good Walk Spoiled” he takes on golf. His subtitle gives you a hint of where he is going: Rich people and their addiction to golf: a philosophical investigation. Click here for the podcast, it’s a must listen.
Early on he tells us where he stands on golf, “I hate golf” he says. And after listening to him I agree with him… kind of.
Now, of course that’s surprising coming from me a passionate golf fan whose tag line on this site is “For All Things Golf” and Twitter description says “Loving all things golf…24-7”.
But I am with Gladwell on this one, I hate golf…at least the kind of golf he describes in this well researched, intellectual take-down of private, country club golf.
Gladwell first tells us about a study done by some grad students focusing on CEO’s of the top companies in the United States and how often they play golf. They used the USGA’s GHIN handicapping system to flush out how many rounds these highly paid executives were playing.
Of course, it doesn’t take much to get to that a CEO who spends too much time on the course is spending less time at the office and maybe his company is suffering for it. They highlight one exec that posted 146 rounds. 146 rounds of golf in one season! I’d be selling that stock for sure.
I don’t know what is more shocking: the actual number of rounds or the fact that this (supposedly smart) CEO was bold enough to post them to a public database.
The crux of Gladwell’s argument against golf is the fact that the private golf courses in California are being subsidized by regular tax payers while they serve only the privileged, wealthy few that can afford membership.
And while he laments the fact that the majority of all the greenspace in Los Angeles is either a cemetery or a golf course and there are no public parks his major complaint is that these very expensive and uber exclusive clubs don’t pay the taxes they should be paying.
He paints golf as an elitist pastime played by the one-percenters at the expense of the regular everyday working man.
And this is where I agree with him.
Due to some crafty politicking and California’s Proposition 13 those clubs like Los Angeles Country Club, Brentwood, Bel-air and Riviera (this week’s PGA Tour stop) don’t pay anywhere near their fair share in property taxes.
He quotes a LACC member who says the property is probably worth nine billion dollars, yes billion. At normal tax rates they would be on the hook for $90 million in taxes. But due to some help from a few archaic rules and a little help from Bob Hope they paid barely $200,000 in property taxes.
That is some sweet tax break! No wonder a man of the people like Gladwell hates golf. Based on his research that’s a fine reason to hate golf.
I agree with him here but that isn’t the golf I am familiar with.
My only foray onto an exclusive private club is when they open them up to a major championship. No way Winged Foot, Shinnecock, Baltustrol, The Country Club, Merion, Oakmont, Oakhill, Newport and the rest of those private east coast clubs would allow a mook like me on their well guarded course.
But then those members aren’t the ones I walk with on the grounds of a good public course, nor will they ever be. And I like it that way.
There is such a dichotomy in this game and not just between scratch golfers and hackers.
The majority of golfers and golf rounds are played by public golfers on public courses. We are done a disservice by being rolled in with the elitist, rich upper class that join clubs for prestige and to get away from guys like me…the public golfer.
The golfers I play with pay their way (and taxes) and are in it for all the joys the game brings us: sportsmanship, camaraderie, competition and fun.
And Gladwell makes a good point comparing the U.S. to Scotland where many of their great, historic clubs are open for public play and some still used as public parks. But that can be traced to the very start of the game in both countries.
It was sheep herders that started the game in Scotland as they tended their herds along the coastal links, land that was open to all. Theses were working men who found ways to pass their time by smacking rocks with a stick. The upper class found the game from them.
Here in the states it was the opposite. The game was started here by men of means and played in private clubs. The working man wasn’t the everyday golfer.
In Scotland, now as it was back in the day, almost everyone plays golf. Here, the knock on golf is that it’s played by rich, white guys. And maybe that’s true if you look at the PGA Tour and those private clubs that Gladwell hates so much.
But there is so much more to this game than private clubs and wealthy members pulling strings to get favors for their precious country clubs.
So while I do appreciate Gladwell’s indictment of those tax evading private bastions of power and wealth I am still glad to call myself a golfer, a public golfer.
And that’s the way it will always be.
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