This Day in Sports 100 Years Ago: July 10, 1914 -- 'Critic Says Golf Charms But Is Not A Great Game'
On this day in sports history 100 years ago, The El Paso Herald published the article above indicating that golf leads to selfishness and ill-temper, in addition to being effeminate, according to R.J.T Bosanquet.
Also on Extra Mustard: Clint Dempsey on David Letterman
The London native, an amateur golfer, was once one of the greatest cricket players in the world and spent some additional time giving it those five-iron wielding buffoons stating:
Golf calls for none of the essential qualities of a great game such as pluck, endurance, physical fitness, agility, unselfishness, esprit de corps, quickness of the eye or judgment. It is merely a pleasant reaction and an inducement to indolent people to take exercise. It develops no qualities of manliness or fighting ability that are of assistance in the more serious pursuits of life. It is an effeminate game at best.
However, Bosanquet would do an about-face and handed out the following pleasantries:
Of course, golf brings pleasure to thousands and the game deserves some credit for that. I have played golf very often and no one is more grateful to the game for many pleasant hours than I.
And then we see some of that wonderful turn-of-the-century sexism:
The game does not demand any real pluck or physical courage; it demands nothing like cricket, polo, football, or the other games demand, and as I view the situation, golf is a game that is more for women than for men
That explains why the men's pro tour has floundered while the LPGA has flourished. Oh wait...
This gem tracked down by Bradley Popkin.
