One of the most frequently debated in sports in the recent years has been whether or not golf is a sport.

A sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another, or others, for entertainment.

On one side of the coin, golfers are becoming athletes. They aren’t just lifting weights in the gym for vein-popping muscles, they are doing it for results on the golf course as a result professional golfer clubhead speed are at an all time high with swings speeds topping out at 127 miles per hour. In recent years, the top college golf programs have weekly workout routines up to par with other sports workout routines such as football and baseball.

On the flip side, golf is simply walking on some grass and hitting a ball and getting it to a hole in the least amount of swings possible.

Borna Talle (10) and Max Hooites-Meursing (11) are ranked numbers one and two respectively on SJHHS’ varsity golf team. They had different views on the matter.

“Yes I think it’s a sport, in more recent years they are finding how the more fit you are the better you are [at golf]. It’s like all other sports, like in football you don’t have to be in great shape to play football just for fun, but you have to be in good shape to actually be good at football. Golf is the same way,” said Talle.

“I think it goes both ways because in simple terms you hit a little white golf ball in to a hole that’s a couple hundred yards that doesn’t seem very athletic, but it is a sport in the sense that people train their bodies for hours and hours a day even though it’s to do the simple task of putting a ball in a hole,” said Hooites-Meursing.

The Verdict: Yes, golf is notorious for being an old man’s game and if you go to almost any golf course you will see multiple old men there. However, The athletic ability of at least 99% of all golfers currently playing on the PGA tour are in top athletic condition, which allows them to play at the top of their game all the time.