"Forget Ali and Woods, US golf is about smug white peppies and rednecks."

[Joe Chi Minh]

That was the header of an article in today's UK Daily Mirror:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/columnists/holt/2008/09/17/forget-ali-woods-u-s-golf-is-about-smug-white-preppies-and-rednecks-115875-20740003/

For a while, now, I've had the impression that pro golfers everywhere tend to be spoilt brats, and this article says nothing to dissuade me.

[lapfog_1]

1. One of the reasons for the popularity of certain sports now

is the "all white" nature of the dominant contestants.

Start with NASCAR. Golf used to be that way until Tiger.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Well, the athletic prowess of Africans and people of part-African extraction

does tend to overshadow that of other races.

It's also been pointed out that only the strongest African people would have survived the slave ships, so I suppose, what comes round goes round.

It would be surprising, given the constant trial African Americans face, living in a predominantly Caucasian, if their sporting champions didn't have a mental-strength edge, as well.

I wonder if Lewis Hamilton will win the Indianapolis before too long. He's almost certainly the best Formula One drive alive today.

[Blue_Tires]

2. the link is broken for me

try this

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/columnists/holt/2008/09/17/forget-ali-woods-u-s-golf-is-about-smug-white-preppies-and-rednecks-115875-20740003/

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. Thanks for providing that.

[MicaelS]

5. The two biggest wastes of land in this country are

Golf courses and cemeteries.

As far as golf courses go, I've often felt like Rodney Dangerfield's character in Caddyshack "Hey I'll buy up your crummy snobatorium and build condos on it."

[Doctor_J]

8. country clubs and cemetaries - both full of dead people

Thanks to Al Czervik

[Hestia]

6. peppies? as opposed to dyspeptic?

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. Maybe a portmanteau word in this context. Preppies, dyspeptic that

their chances of the big pots are so low these days, on account of the Big Cat.

[Doctor_J]

7. Except for Eldrick Woods, the PGA is made up of country club brats

whose idea of a hard day's work is 4 hours of hitting golf balls. It's probably the most Republican organization in the US. David Duval is a registered Dem, and for that transgression was subjected to an on-camera grilling by Chicago Tribune winger/sports writer Bob Verdi, who asked him to defend himself against the charge that he's a Democrat.

The bizarre premise that 12 of American Country Club brats beating 12 European ones at a weekend of golf somehow makes this a better country is really off-the-charts elitism. It's great for the guys to attach some meaning to it for themselves, but in the midst of a war, a recession, and a putrid presidential campaign it very minor.