Tiger Woods: AP athlete of the year - But golf isn't a sport

it's a recognised sport, just not participated in, in the Olympics

Who cares? I was the Time Magazine Person of the Year.

Alex Rodriguez makes $25 million a yearWhat did Tiger make this year (playing golf)?

MarathonMind wrote:

but anyway, Tiger (and all successful golfers for that matter), make the most money of all "athletes". I guess someone thinks it is a sport. Runners sure don't make that much, and even the best don't even come close.

uoykcuf wrote:

and often engaged in competitively.

Addenda:

b.) a physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively, which cannot be played while drinking a beer or smoking a cigarette.

Unfortunately, this definition doesn't quite eliminate NASCAR (almost).[/quote]

Does this mean Beer-Miling isn't a sport?

tiger = the man wrote:

Tiger is more athletic than steve nash. He is not more athletic than LT, but is better at what he does. Federer isn't an american, so that's why he didn't win.

I thought Nash wasn't American either? And who is LT, I didn't read the whole article so I'm not sure who that could be. I'm guessing a football player? I don't really watch major sports anymore.

Steve Nash is good, but his year was in no way close to the best single season ever by a basketball player. Come on. 1. Federer, 2. Woods. Anything else is ridiculous. Ronaldinho is good though, but no WC.

It definitely should have been Federer.

Are you guys kidding me? I don't think many of you are aware of what Tiger did this year. Tiger won 7 STRAIGHT PGA STARTS, 2 of them being majors. And Tiger wins these events against everybody, whereas Federer only has to beat 7 guys. Tiger is by far the most dominant athlete on the planet. He is the greatest to play the SPORT of golf, and is awesome shape. For those of you who are saying golf isn't a sport, ARE YOU JOKING???? Hey, I'm a runner too, and its physically tough. But golf is probably the hardest sport there is. If you've never ran before you can still be good your first race. But if you've never played golf before, youll suck. Golf is such a demanding sport, and it takes an incredibly talented athlete to make the PGA Tour. Tiger is on a level above any athlete in the world, and to even say that he didn't deserve the athlete of the year is a disgrace to not only Tiger, but all sports.

Yoyo, you are right on the money. Tiger even beats the most talented golfers in the world when his game isn't 100%. Federer is great, but a slip here or there and Nadal would have won 2 majors. Nadal is closer to Federer than the PGA is to Tiger.

It makes no difference whether golf is a sport. Tiger woods was not named "sportsman" of the year. He was named "athlete" of the year. It is all semantics.

Can you say "physical competition"?

Jack Nicklaus at the age of 65 barely missed the cut (couple of years ago) at the british open, i believe that he had a better score than TW in the first round. Every NBA player is a better athlete than TW.

how can you say that every NBA athlete is better than Tiger Woods? Just can they can jump high and their strong doesn't make them a better athlete. And if there such good athletes, why don't some NBA players more to golf and dominate that. Hey you know what? Why doesn't Ben Wallace start playing golf? Since he's a better athlete that means he has to win, RIGHT???? How can you say that NBA players are better athletes than Tiger? Why arent these NBA players moving to different sports and dominating on account athletic superiority? And dont even try and tell me that Shaq daddy is a better athlete than Tiger. All those 7 foot guys are just TALL. Sure their coordinated, but half them can barely sink a free throw. And I am willing that Tiger would have been a professional athlete in whatever sport he chose. He is a great athlete, and probably won athlete of the year by a ton!!!

oh, and about Jack. I guess ur right, he beat Tiger in one round, that means Tiger cant be very good. Actually you know what, im pretty sure Mike Weir beat Tiger on a hole in the Masters. So, I guess Weir should have one AOTY, seeing as he beat Tiger that day, making him the better player

there are only two true sports:

fighting and running. the rest are games.

What's funny is that outside of the US, "athletics" is a term that only refers to T&F so an "athlete" is a T&F person. What's embarrassing is that the last time this award went to a T&F person, it went to Ben Johnson (1987) for M and Marion Jones (2000) for F. Not exactly the purest representatives of our beloved sport.

I must admit, that if they are going to give it to a golfer, at least it went to the most athletic of the golfers. Colin Montgomery is so out of shape he gets winded just walking 18 holes (no exaggeration).

xpert wrote:

Nadal is closer to Federer than the PGA is to Tiger.

And yet Federer still managed 3 majors, while Woods got 2.

And to those who contend that Federer only had to beat 7 people while Woods had to beat everyone, that is the most ridiculous I have heard. It is the nature of the game; in fact Tiger only needs to be better than every opponent over the course of the tourney, while Federer has to be better than a single (and theoretically progressvely better) opponent each and every single day. But I'm not gonna say one is harder than the other, although if Tiger had to win 7 straight match plays I really doubt that he would have won 3+ majors.

Plus golf's not even a sport, so why are we arguing!

Try to understand this: Golf requires no athletic ability. It's a technical game (that's why Jack is still good at 65) it's about learning and practicing and mastering a technique, just like bowling. Shaq is a much better athlete than TW, if TW is such a good athlete what activity or sport has he played that requires athleticism?

Tiger is even harder to beat in Match Play. i think he would have had a way easier time winning tournaments if they were all match play. Tiger just intimidates his oppenents, and he is obviously better.

michael johnson won in 1996.

tiger woods would not succeed in any other sport besides golf. to think otherwise is ludicrous. a few sentences beforehand you made the claim that ben wallace would not be any good at golf. the same can be said for tiger woods and basketball.

federer and woods is a complete tossup. both absolutely dominated their respective sports this year. neither one of them had any competition because they are so much better than anyone else.

while golf is a pretty pussy sport in terms of physical exertion it might be the toughest sport mentally. tiger gets all the respect in the world from me for dominating while being under constant pressure from the media, giant galleries, etc. he deals with it better than pretty much anyone in any sport.

I think chess is tougher mentally than golf, but that's just me.