Draft(Golf)

In the 1960’s golf took a close second in popularity of American’s, to “Americas Past-time,” baseball. Those two sports ruled television and radio sets all over the place. Now, those to sports seem to be fading as fast an evening sunset. Why is this? Why has football and basketball now become more entertaining to an average viewer than America’s most pure sports? In my opinion it’s a direct reflection of today’s high pace society. People now days do not have time to follow a four-day golf tournament, they’d rather sit down on a Sunday for just a few hours and watch the Packers play the Vikings.
To football’s credit, they have marketed their sport extremely well. They do a very good job of appealing to the younger generation’s eye. Unlike golf, which is viewed as a patient, methodical sport, it’s harder to market to this generation. Gambling is another reason that football is strides in from of other sports. In the article, “Why Pro Football is the Most Popular Sport in America,” Randy Inman explains, “football is a great sport to gamble on because the games all take place within 2 days which makes your bets easier to keep up with.” (para. 3) If you think about it from an editor of a newspaper that is trying to boost their readers, more times than not, you would see football on the front page instead of golf. When is the last time you saw two golfers collide a full speed causing a collision? How about never? A wide receiver getting crushed by a massive, out of control, freak athlete is astronomically more entertaining than an out of shape 5’ 9” sack of bones hit a ball in to a tiny hole. That’s just the way it is and from what I can see its not changing anytime soon. In 2003, 6.1 million children for ages 5-17 participated in golf, the following year, 4.4 million. Since then it’s been declining even more. Without the interest of young people golf will have no future. Golf could end up in the same boat as tennis. Since 1975, tennis has dropped in participates from 34 million to 1.3 million.