Golf club, ball and tee
With the magnificent ‘Open’ starting today it will be great way to spend quality time in front of the telly watching hours upon hours of golf, taking and laying bets, and, playing online poker. Golf is great to watch when you try to grind at poker, because, it gives you enough reasons to be distracted, but not enough to overwhelm you with visual fireworks.
One of my hero’s Mark Twain once said that ”….golf was a good walk spoilt”! He maybe right if you think that a game which generates billions every year and can be played by anyone from 6 to 96 is a waste of time? Obviously due to history (Mark Twain died before the launch of digital TV), and, tradition, golf was always seen as the game of ‘Ol diehard misogynist, racist, homophobic idle rich and the nouveau riche on the make.
The game itself was pleasant enough to watch and play. Never taken too seriously as it had as much ‘sex appeal’ as watching Westlife or Barry Manilow doing a 2 hour show – OK but dull. Then came Tiger Woods! Golf became interesting, especially if you were betting on it. The bookies gave ever more cramped odds and the punters backed Tiger Woods with gusto. As winning at golf began to get boring along came one of the most over-rated episodes known to man. TIGER WOODS HAS SEX WITH MANY WOMEN!
The world went mad. It seems that having sex with women is bigger than defrauding the population out of billions of pounds. Having sex with women is more important than going to war against a country and dictator because he upset your daddy. The World went completely bonkers when it was revealed that Tiger Woods had sex with multiple women while still married. It led to his divorce and consequently to a major loss of form for Mr Woods. It seems the only people happy with this loss of form were the bookies and the religious and political nutters who always want to tell people how to live.
Golf has always been popular with poker players not only because of the betting angle, but, because it is a solo pursuit in which you battle the person or persons as well as the elements and terrain to win. In poker you not only use the cards to defeat your opponent, you see which way your opponent is thinking to help you win. Likewise with golf watching poker can be difficult in live events. I never understand paying thousands of pounds to watch a golf tournament live when it is better on TV. Just like watching the original ‘Late Night Poker’ suddenly opened up the minutiae of the game to the ordinary poker player, and told them they were right or wrong in the same situation.