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Golf's Digital Divide
theodp writes "Are $50,000 simulators and $4,500 sensor vests driving a wedge between golf's haves and have-nots? That's the question posed by the WSJ, who reports that a new generation of expensive high-tech tools is stoking a costly arms race among golfers looking for an edge in a sport that already has an elitist reputation."
CyberSteroids for the men with little balls.
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
You mean rich folks have an advantage? Damn. ll my life, there has been equality between the haves and the have nots. Especially in golf. Now, that is falling down like a house of cards.
My life is over. Anyone want my user id before I go to end it all?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
SHOCKED to hear that technology might be introducing the taint of elitism into the great Everyman's Sport that is golf.
Someone had to say it first....
That's not to mention the fact that in golf a fair bit of the skill is in knowing what to do, not just how to do it.
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I don't believe this is the tragedy that the submission of this story implies. It is unfortunate that such equipment is inaccessible to everyone, but if nothing else, isn't a sport striving for greatness? I see training as a different sort of advantage than say, steroid use. Ultimately, no tool will replace hard work; a professional golfer, regardless of income, must work for success.
If we draw a line based on income, what else does that set a precedent for? Genetics can also provide an advantage; how should that be resolved? What about in other situations? Do I want my doctor to have inferior training than another, because having access to expensive training tools gives him an 'unfair' competitive edge in the health market?
The problem with golf is that it is too subtle about being a "rich people game".
Thus, I propose a NEW sport, which I humbly name "money-ball".
The way it works is, you have a big bonfire. Throwing $20 into the bonfire gives you one point. The game continues until one side forfeits. Whoever has the most points at the end wins!
Fun for hours!
At a cost of $60 for green fees (the lowest around here), the wedge between golfing "Haves" and "Have-nots" begins before you even reach the gilded gates of the course. Add in golf-cart and clubs, plus drinks afterwards, it's easy to drop $120 to go golfing.
Phooey...
52 52'23" W 47 32'07" N
$50,000 simulators to play golf are no more necessary than a $100,000 swiss watch is necessary to tell the time.
who fucking cares. who cares if some guy on another hole has some $50,000 machine to practice on. it doens't impact me in the least. i could care less what others play, just my own.
I golfed for 18 years. It's a great head game, really almost zen like, but championship calibre play doesn't come from expensive toys. Expensive toys can hone natural talent but that's about it. For all that, expensive toys can ruin natural talent.
Micheal Jordan was touted a a "physical genius", whatever that is. When Jordan turned to baseball it was said his physical genius would allow him to achieve the same greatness in baseball as he did in B ball. Did not happen, and it's likely Jordan had access to every toy available.
The X factor will always be part of championship play and all the toys for all the boys won't replace it.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
I saw a report on TV a few years back about a golf ball that has 2 rows of dots, kinda like a baseball, instead of all over, and it doesn't slice at all.
So good it was immediately outlawed. Which is fine but, you have to admit, golf is a pretty artificial sport.
--
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Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
All of this is just to get money from people that already have too much of it.
The only things you need for golf are a swing you can repeat, and knowing how to putt. Neither require anything more than a normal set of clubs, and some practice.
Ben Hogan said it best that there is no reason the average person can't break 70. And there was no tricks, no $50k electric vests, no goofy clubs that collapse when you swing the wrong way, or anything else. It's just having a swing that repeats, and includes the fundamental things you need to have that all great golfers do.
Best thing to be a better golf game is get the Ben Hogan book about the 5 fundamentals. About $5-$10 at any bookstore. Ben Crenshaw has a video on putting that's also good, and it's about the same price if you can find it.
But does that simulator include using flowers for driving practice? Oh, I think not.
Besides, most of the folks I know golf because it's a good excuse to swill something from the beverage cart, enjoy being outside instead of in their offices/cubicles, and fire off jokes that would otherwise score them a 30 minute meeting with their manager and an HR rep.
Golf is always stereo typed as a rich white mans sport. While many Private $100,000+ country clubs have the snobby atmosphere, the public courses do not. My friend got into golf after hearing of Tiger Woods. He got me to go to a driving range one day after allot of convincing. Well I enjoyed it, and began to play more often. Im not an avid golfer but I do have a set of cheap second hand clubs for when we go play. We play the local par 3 courses, pitch and putts, driving ranges and even the various mini golf courses to have fun while working on our putt. Its fun but you also see allot of young and diverse people. Once on a pitch and putt course I saw a bunch of the most ghetto black kids you can imagine with their own equipment playing. Golf still has that snobby rich guy image attached to it but overall everyone enjoys the sport, you just do see it portrayted that way in the media.
but do these things actually help golfers that much? They may just be a way to suck money out of rich people who can afford to throw their money down the drain (or hole in this case) There are always things for rich people to try to save a stroke or two on their gamek, but determination will always win out
Or did you mean "Gorf"?
If you're a Tiger woods then perhaps equipment that gives you an extra 1% edge is worth it, but most people would not tell the difference. The biggest success determining factors are ability and practice. Expensive kit does nothing unless you actually use it.
Marketers understand what drives buying for premium spending sports (golf, fly fishing,...). Most of the sportsmen don't have enough time to get out and practice sufficiently and feel a bit guilt about it. Being able to buy the toys helps alleviate that feeling of guilt rather than actually improving the game directly.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
...a new generation of expensive high-tech tools is stoking a costly arms race among golfers looking for an edge in a sport that already has an elitist reputation.
The expensive tools aren't about "having an edge" on the green. It's a way of trying to create a new layer of socio-economic separation in the group of players. Golf has been a pasttime of the affluent and powerful for awhile. And it used to be a game that stayed in that domain. But the more people have been shouldering up the cost of equipment to get started (partially as part of corporate ass-kissing to try to get a leg up in office politics) and with more and more public golf courses springing up the game just isn't "exculsive" enough for the Good Ol' Boys anymore.
So they take it up a notch. How hardcore a golfer are you? "Oh, well I spent $1000 on this space age driver." "Oh well, I have a $4500 simulator."
It's just a new game of keeping up with the Jones's with an entry price set high enough to keep the riff-raff out.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I honestly thought this article would be about how you need a computer and internet connection to make tee times.
It used to be done over the phone, but now my godparents had to buy a computer and internet access exclusively to reserve tee times at their local course.
It can be pretty rough if you have never used a computer before...
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
There was a time when we used to play golf with:
1. persimmon woods
2. hickory shafts
3. blade irons
4. something called a "mashie niblick" (look it up, for a trip down memory lane)
5. leather balls stuffed with feathers
Now, thanks to new technology we play with:
1. oversized titanium drivers
2. graphite shafts
3. cavity back irons
4. 60-degree wedges
5. four layer solid-core distance balls
Now for the kicker - according to the USGA, the average handicap hasn't dropped significantly. What does that tell us?
Also, this haves vs. the have-nots thing is a bunch of hogwash. Yes, there are a few extremely rich people who show it off. But most people who have a few million in the bank don't show it. I know a few people like this. One drives a car that's fifteen years old. Another drives a piece of junk. They look like simple people. Their bank account doesn't affect their thinking. But on the other end of the spectrum, there are a ton of people nowadays who feel a need to show off and attract attention. They do so by overextending themselves on their credit cards and multiple refinances of their homes, so they can drive fancy cars and live a high-roller's life. They're generally the ones who buy all those gadgets.
And like I said, they'll get laughed right off the golf course, because a guy who shows up with $15,000 in electronic golf gadgets is like the nerd kid who shows up on his bicycle with 50 different pieces of safety equipment like pads and gloves because his mom thinks he'll get a scratch otherwise.
Am I the only one interested in the method by which that iClub thing (last link in summary) works?
...
Come on! I wanna know what sensors they put on people and in the clubs, and then I wanna know how they turn the raw data from those sensors into usable data like position in 3d space and orientation.
Is this stuff patented? Patents are public record...
Haha! Reverse patent trolling!
1) Search patent database for good patents
2) Come up with awesome idea using the patent
3) License patent from owner cheaply
4) Release super-awesome product-of-the-century
5)
6) PROFIT!
:(){
Swimming can be even cheaper as long as you're not using a wetsuit, ...
:-)
Swimming can be really inexpensive, especially if you forget about the swimsuit !!
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
A game that involves sunlight and walking? Like anyone here would play that!
Silicon Valley started to go downhill when executives started playing golf instead of raquetball and tennis.
Come on mods, that is funny.. lighten up would ya. Golf doesn't need to be expensive but it definitely can be if you so choose to invest money into it. The expensive uber-elite private courses with yearly membership fees of $50K are really the exception. I play every monday & tuesday on a public course with a neighbour (it's only a short 5 minute walk) and it costs $14 to play 9 holes... on the weekends its a bit more expensive but with a group of friends + case of beer, it's worth the money.
Every year I end up buying a new club of some sort, sometimes I'll drop a few bucks on a putter, couple of hundred a year in total I would guess. Kids probably spend twice as much as I do on their Xbox games and jolt, so it's all relative IMHO. The only time I take the game of golf seriously is when I step up to the ball and do what I can to get it close to the hole...
If you're interested in golf I would suggest grabbing a bag of clubs from a local garage sale, it doesn't have to be fancy.. just make sure the heads aren't loosening up (that can be repaired for a few dollars at the pro-shop.) Find a public course near you and enjoy walking the course, it's healthy way to get in some mild exercise.