First, let me start by saying that I hate golf. Well, I hated golf. Forgive me, but I didn't really see the point of sitting in front of a television for four hours watching people try to hit a small ball into small hole from 400 yards away. In a word, it was boring.
I had a change of heart this past weekend though, and it turns out that golf is actually a sport.
I have finally come around.
Over the weekend I traveled home to Philadelphia for an internship working in the media tent for the 42nd Walker
Cup Match at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore.
For golf aficionados, the Walker Cup is the amateur equivalent to the Davis Cup. For the rest of us, it is a competition pinning the best amateur golfers from the United States against the best amateur golfers from Great Britain and Ireland.
What I thought would be a weekend of me running errands and doing other menial jobs turned out to be a weekend of me watching golf and coming to an unforeseen revelation -- I like it.
I might even consider it a life-changing experience.
Friday, I spent most of my time just walking around the course and taking in a couple practice rounds, and even that was mildly entertaining. Saturday, I had planned on watching a few matches tee-off on the first hole and then go back to the tent. Instead, I spent four hours sitting at the 13th green, watching players try to tackle the short, difficult par 3.
I watched the conclusion of four matches on the 18th green and loved every minute of it.
Sunday, I did it all over again.
Before the weekend, I never saw what all the fuss was about. I thought of golf as a game that everybody could play and perform well at to a certain extent.
I've been to plenty of driving ranges,
mostly to work on my "Happy Gilmore" swing, but they were always packed with people who seemed to know what they were doing.
I just assumed that golf was easy. The courses that I had actually seen in person didn't seem all that difficult to play, but I have never been to Merion.
I don't want this to sound like and advertisement, but the course is as beautiful as it is difficult.
According to the club's website, Jack Nicklaus once said, "Acre for acre, it may be the best test of golf in the world."
I have nothing to judge it against, but if there is a more beautiful and challenging course, I would love to see it.
But aesthetics aside, what the experience ultimately lead me to realize was that golf is entertaining, especially in person.
Watching Scotland's Wallace Booth, whom I can only describe as Terminator with a British accent, annihilate balls off the tee was an awe-inspiring sight. Seeing American Peter Uihlein sink an 18-foot putt to take the lead on the 18th green was just a taste of the dramatic moments that can come from watching golf.
When I think that the players I saw this weekend are only amateurs, I can't imagine the level of play on the pro tour.
But I may have my chance to find out.
Merion hosts the U.S. Open in 2013. Hopefully, they will need another intern.
