Can golfers claim the most difficult sport?

By JEN SEAVEY

Journal Sports Editor

I sometimes think that I would be a better golfer if the ball were thrown at me rather than sitting in the grass.

Yes, I am a softball player by nature, and I only recently grew a desire to become better at golf. So hitting an itty-bitty ball nestled so closely to the ground, which I hit rather frequently, is difficult for me. When I hit a green from the ladies' tee box at Minneopa Golf Club a few weeks ago, everybody on the course surely heard my yell of celebration. Granted, it was a short shot, but I did it.

Even considering my difficulties with the sport, I still have to disagree with a Minnesota Golfer article from June in which Josepb Oberle claimed, in essence, that golf was a more difficult sport than others. He says that because the ball is stationary, it is even more difficult because of the obstacles golfers creates for themselves.

While I understand that people take golf all too seriously and put pressure on themselves, making it a sport of stress rather than the easygoing game that I know (easy for me to say -- I stink), I disagree that hitting a golf ball is more difficult than hitting a well-thrown pitch in baseball.

In baseball, players have to judge not only where the ball is and how they want to hit it, they also has to anticipate what the pitcher is thinking. Why? When the ball is coming at you, you don't have a whole lot of time to react. And when you throw in the judgements of a third party -- the umpire -- it complicates things more.

Oberle also says that golf is probably the most mental sport. This also is an overstatement. In other sports, an athlete must also be focused, but also has to think quickly, anticipate, and worry about getting an elbow in the face or a fastball in the knee.

I'm not saying that golf is not a very difficult sport; I just don't think that golfers can say that their sport is the most difficult. It is quite possible that golf simply seems so difficult because a player can see perfection and just how far from it he or she is.

In golf, there is nothing in the way of seeing where you are, where your goal is and how woefully wrong your play can be. In basketball or softball or soccer, perfection relies on different people and actions, so a person can screw up to some extent and still be successful.

In golf, this is not true. If I badly slice a shot and land it on the fairway of the neighboring hole, everybody is going to see that I am far from perfection (especially the people who are in danger of being hit).

Golf is like any other sport; there are people for whom it comes naturally and people for whom it will never be a success. And, like any other sport, it is difficult to attain any level of real success.

My advice? Just relax and enjoy the game.