Hot topic: Fat lads rejoice!
David Duval was right about the pros but the golf industry is targeting us with their clothing and equipment.
On the eve of the 2000 Open Championship at St Andrews, David Duval, suggested that there was no place for overweight and unfit golfers in the modern game. At the time he was No.2 in the world and at the top of his game - lean and mean and chasing major titles. "Fitness adds a lot to longevity and can be beneficial to prevention of injuries. I believe the golf swing is a very athletic movement and super-fit athletes will rule golf in the future,"said Duval. Lee Westwood, 15-stone at the time and on a roll after two tournament wins, disagreed: How ironic then that six years later, Duval, still as slim as a reed has been proved to be a visionary but lost his way in tournament golf, while Westwood took to the exercise bike and a healthy diet and has retained his form. But while our pros have become athletes - well most of them apart from perhaps John Daly (still the highest ranked player never to have played in a Ryder Cup) - club golfers have continued to pile on the pounds and in doing so have made themselves an even bigger target for those aiming to make money from golf. A survey in the US - and there's no reason to think the UK doesn't have a similar pattern of club goilfers - reveals that the least fit among us are ripe for picking as targets for golf equipment and clothing. | |
For a start, golf is attractive to the older player because of the relative lack of activity demanded as our aging body slows down. We can still be competitive despite our aches and pains or our wide girth compared to the fitness freaks. In a nutshell, the surveys says, with juniors needing hand-outs from parents and women's golf demographics dwindling, it makes more sense to go after the fat, white guys with cash to splash. Notice the courses who are introducing buggy paths to their established courses and boosting their golf cart fleets, recognise how electric trolley sales are expanding, how clubs are made to get the ball airborne quicker to assist those of us with less athletic golf swings. As for golf clothing you won't find much stock in your pro shop in the retro slim-fit style of Sergio Garcia. Most shirts could take a tent peg at each corner and protect a small family on a camping trip. And don't expect much to change over the next decade. According to government statistics one in five kids are obese because they're eating the wrong food, not getting enough exercise and depriving themselves of sleep. The gap is widening in terms of fitness between pros and punters but rejoice in the fact that the combination of golf's handicap system and high technology equipment, still allows us fat lads compete. |
