Cuba is finally getting around to approving second through fifth golf courses for foreign tourists. The country has 2100 miles of coastline, and there's nothing golfers like more than playing next to the sea. There's a recently discovered golf course grass that thrives despite salt spray, so it's become easier to build courses next to the ocean than in the past.
After 50 years of Castro, Cuba is so ridiculously poor that all sorts of financially feasible win-win deals could be worked out between the U.S. and Cuba. Back in 2008, I suggested Baseball Diplomacy to President Bush. Perhaps Obama could try Golf Diplomacy?
But, you never hear much about Cuba as a foreign policy topic. I guess it's too close to America to think about.
yet another nation that doesn't play, doesn't care about, and has no interest in competitive golf. a totally minor sport that no good athletes play and almost nobody in the world can even afford to play competitively. 1 whole golf course in all of cuba. damn, talent pool in this sport is HUGE! it's so popular in the third world...where all the good athletes are...wait...
ReplyDeletethere are way, way more athletes from cuba in all the minor sports steve listed in his previous post about sucking up to NCAA coaches. heck, a cuban recently boxed for the WBC world heavyweight championship. got paid a couple million to get knocked out by a klitschko but hey, he tried.
only americans think golf qualifies as a big deal - but only if a certain golfer is winning. if some "furiner" with a funny name wins, then it's quickly back to who cares mode. the guy who won is a non-athlete joke and golf is not a sport. cue the insults from the sports writers and yawns from the television viewers. who did win anyway? unless it's that certain someone, it's never important who won. the sneering contempt some US sports analysts exuded for up and coming south african golfer charl schwartzel after he and the international field coolly stared down tiger woods at the 2011 masters, was palpable.
Another striking golf-free zone is Brazil. If you are like me, and golf courses per capita is your idea of a middlebrow happiness index, then you do not want the Brazilean future.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Earth the area around Sao Paulo, for example. Try it: barely a handful of golf courses in state of thirty million people. In Brazil, you either fly in to polo games in your helicopter or you don't admit to owning anything but beach sand and sunshine.
Gilbert Pinfold.
Um, Brazilian, I meant.
ReplyDeleteAmerica should end its ridiculously stupid embargo against Cuba.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if a massive oil find was made in Cuba would America still keep its embargo against Cuba?
ReplyDeleteJody is an idiot. Here's a partial list of "good athletes" who play/played golf: Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, John Brodie, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Jack Tatum, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Jerry Rice, O.J. Simpson, Ivan Lendl, Kelly Slater, Wayne Gretzky, Bruce Jenner, ... I guess he meant they weren't good enough to be golf pros. Wait, that kind of destroys his point. Oh well. Wonder if Jodie could beat me in a game of one-on-one.
ReplyDeleteGolf is the dumbest "sport" there is. Just because rich athletes in other sports play golf in their spare time, that doesn't make it a sport. Sure it's hard. So is chess. That doesn't make it a sport.
ReplyDeleteThere are some good country club/elitist sports: tennis, squash, polo, rowing. These require real athleticism. And they burn calories. Yes I realize that pro golfers walk the course. Everybody else rides a cart. The last thing fat America needs is a "sport" where you drive around in golf cart for "sport".