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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35432 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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I just bought new clubs. I golfed in high school, and occasionally over the years, but picked it up again in earnest in 2020, when some of my friends also started playing more. It's really nice to have a 4-some to play with regularly, or a roster of regulars from which to pull the group.

I can play with my dad, which is always a pleasure. I walk with a push cart, and there's very little else that can get me out of bed at dawn on a weekend, or that can make me spend 4 hours outside before noon, or that can make me walk and be on my feet for that much time.

I don't agree about the social/upper class aspect of it, but that's probably because I'm playing with old friends, and we're all poors playing muni courses. Not a lot of fresh blood in my groups.

I don't agree about the social/upper class aspect of it, but that's probably because I'm playing with old friends, and we're all poors playing muni courses. Not a lot of fresh blood in my groups.

I don't mean to say that golf is exclusively an upper class thing. The course I spend most of my time at is $20/round 9 hole course. I just mean that if you wanted a route into that group, that golf could provide it, and the path is well laid out.

Golf's "eliteness" varies from region-to-region. In the UK and Ireland it's very much also a working man's game. In Canada and Australia it gets a little more expensive, but there are still plenty of clubs to join in that $500 to $1,500 price range for a year's membership. In the US it gets even more expensive still, especially down south, but still affordable to a wide range of the population. Then in continental Europe it can be quite expensive and in east Asia it's truly an elite thing

In North America it's much more the country club setting that is elite than the game itself

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