Leisure in Society: Golf - Case Study Example

Leisure in Society. Golf 2006 The greatest part of person’s life takes place at his working place. However, leisure plays extremely important rolefor people. This is the time, which renews person’s vigour and recreate. This is the time, which can be devoted to the activities, which helps a person to relax and perfect oneself in the activities, different form job responsibilities. This is the time for hobby…. One of the major activities of the British during the leisure is sport. There were conducted some researches to investigate which leisure activities are the most popular among the British people. According to ESRC fact sheet the most popular leisure time activity in the UK is watching TV. However, the main problem, which arises, is the lack of movement and physical activity in the lives of the British population. According to the research conducted in Bristol over 10 % of 11-year-old children should move more actively and are recommended to make daily exercises. The other survey conducted by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children came to the conclusion that children from more well-to-do families make less exercise than children from poorer social background and girls were less active than boys / BBC News, 2005/. Medical surveys, which took place in 2002, showed the same results that over 22 % of male and 23 % of British female population were obese. Besides, some part of the population was not obese but overweight. These are 43 % of males and 34 % of female population of the UK. Thus, according to the Body Mass Index over 50 % of all adult population of Great Britain is overweight and were recommended to control their weight / Office for National Statistics, 2005/. On the other hand, it should be mentioned that there is a growing interest to the sport activities in the UK. Thus, the General Household Survey made a research of the most popular sporting activities of grown-ups (aged 16 and more). The results of the survey are represented on the table below/ Office for National Statistics, 2005/ : Per cent participating Sport/activity Men Women Walking 36 34 Snooker/pool/billiards 15 4 Cycling 12 6 Swimming 12 15 Football 10 - Golf 9 - Weight training 9 3 Keep-fit/yoga 7 16 Running 7 3 Ten-pin bowling 4 3 Horse-riding - 2 Tennis - 2 Source: Office for National Statistics (2005a) UK 2005: The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Stationery Office, London. The only corrections, which I would like to make in this list is to include angling. Thus, according to the Environment Agency approximately 11 % of all British population has fished during the past two years / Environment Agency, 2007/. Therefore, I would like to mention this kind of sport activity as one of the popular activities of the UK population both of men and women. On the other hand, the other hand, which we also should take into consideration, is the organization of the sport activity. Thus, according to the numbers of clubs and their members, football takes the first place in the UK in its popularity. According to the official statistics of Sport England, there exist approximately 42,000 of football clubs in the UK, with over 1.5 million people participating in them. The second place in the number of its clubs is occupied by the bowls clubs, the third place is divided among the supporters of the snooker and golf, however, the number of snooker and golf clubs is twice less than the number of bowls clubs / Sport England Website, 2007/. Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport in the process of the investigation came to the conclusion that the four major spectator sports of the United Kingdom are football, cricket, rugby union and tennis. This implies that the majority of the population of the UK follows the major events in these sports with pleasure. However, there should also be mentioned that the horseracing is also one of the most spectacular, which is proved by the fact that more than over six million British attended horseracing in the United Kingdom in 2003 /Select Committee on Media, Culture and Sport - Minutes of Evidence, 2007/. The other researches distinguished the most popular sport still by other characteristics. For example, according to the research, which investigated the most interesting sport activity wit regard to the minutes of coverage in mass media, the most popular kind of sport activity in the UK appeared football and no wonder as England is regarded as football capital of the world. Thus, according to the research conducted in 1998 300 hours of the whole-world mass media coverage was devoted to football, while only 200 hours were devoted to cricket and golf received only 86 hours /.Select Committee on Media, Culture and Sport - Minutes of Evidence, 2007/. Source: Economic and social research council On the other hand there is no other country, which is so closely associated with golf as United Kingdom. In spite of the fact that the motherland of golf is not still defined and this title is argued among China, the Netherlands and Scotland, still this kind of sport activity appears the most popular in the UK. This is no wonder if we take into consideration that this kind of sport greatly corresponds to the British way of life and the mentality of the British people. Many people consider that golf can not be considered as a sport in the full meaning of this word. This is true as golf bears the impression of the simple, closed sport game / BPS Workshop in association with BASES, 2007/. On the other hand, we can’t but agree that golfers have a great ability to concentrate and as well as the other ability to attend to task relevant stimuli is a challenge. Golf requires accuracy precision and a well-considered strategy. Due to this characteristics golf can be considered as the game of the “mind over muscle”. Thus, for a successful golfer it is essentially important to be balanced, reserved and concentrated. These are the qualities, which differentiate bad and good golfers / BPS Workshop in association with BASES, 2007/. The other psychological aspect of golf is the ability to mentally control oneself. Thus, an experiences golfer should be able to control oneself and organize one’s thoughts and forces, he should be able to concentrate and to analyze his performance in the round. This all requires great psychological techniques and self-knowledge and self-control / BPS Workshop in association with BASES, 2007/. Golf is in fact a very complex and challenging game. In order to become a nice golfer a person needs to possess a wide variety of psychological skills. For a good performance a person has to integrate his psychological skills into his golf practice strategies. Later golf was simply a sport activity but nowadays this kind of sport acquires social aspect. It is quite obvious that in the present-day life golf became unofficial sport of the business world. The role of golf in the present business world can not be overestimated. This games serves a good basis for the establishment of new worthy business contacts and for the development of the old one. Quite often business partners find this type of activity very suitable for unofficial discussion of their business plans and perspectives of further work. Due to this fact, they say that board meetings are intended only to serve a confirmation of the decisions, which were achieved during the golf round. Due to this it can be said that golf plays an extremely important role in the contemporary business world. To be prosperous in business it is desirable to be a nice golf player. This fact is not a secret for numerous business courses at the universities. Many schools, as well as prestigious universities, in their timetables have such discipline as business golf. This course teaches a future businessman a proper golf conduct, which is much wider than simple knowledge of the rules of a game and nice golf skills. These business golf courses teach how to behave with their business partners during the round of golf and teachers a wide range of psychological strategies. One more aspect, which is particularly interesting and relevant to our study is the world popularity of golf. For example, in 2005 a research conducted by Golf Digest showed that around the whole world there existed over 32,000 golf courses. This research also showed the countries with the greatest number of golf players and golf courses correspondingly to the general number of population /Taylor, Berthoud, & Jenkins, 2004/. The fist place was occupied by Scotland, immediately followed by New Zealand, Australia, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England. The number of golf courses all around the world grows very quickly. If we take China as an example we can see that in this country the first golf courses appeared only in the 1980s, however, in 2005 in the country existed approximately 200 courses in this kind of sport /Taylor, Berthoud, & Jenkins, 2004/. Initially and even nowadays all the professional golf is for the most part dominated by British golfers. On the other hand after the World War II they have to constantly prove their leadership to their US colleagues, who also constantly perfect themselves in this game. Due to the historical peculiarities some other Commonwealth countries, for example Australia or South Africa, also have old traditions of game. However, the UK dominance have been recently pressed by South Korea, which is due to the high level of the women’s golf in this country /Taylor, Berthoud, & Jenkins, 2004/. Since 1980s golf became viewed mostly not also as a kind of sport but mostly as a means of merry pastime. Golf vacations and holidays became extremely popular all over the world for the last 20 years. Especially this is true for UK. This prompted the development of the golf business. Thus, now the greater part of all luxury resorts in the United Kingdom propose wide possibilities of golf and deliver golf courses / Sport England website, 2001 /. We can not forget about the professional level of golf, which is on the high level of performance in different countries. The best-known professional golfer is Tiger Woods, who is for the time being the leading golfer [18]. In the present-day world there exist at least twenty professional golf tours, in which it is quite difficult to gain membership, this is particularly true for elite tours / Sport England website, 2001 /. The first place in the golf tours is taken by the PGA TOUR and the European Tour occupy the second place in its prestige and popularity. However, there exist some other popular men’s tours all around the world. These are for example U.S. Open, the Open Championship, PGA Championship / Sport England website, 2001 /. The Open Championship is most popular tour in the United Kingdom. Women’s major golf tours are not so popular as men’s one. However, their popularity constantly grows. In the USA the best-known women’s golf tour is the LPGA Tour. This women’s golf popularity is contested by some other tours like Kraft Nabisco Championship, U.S. Women’s Open, LPGA Championship and Women’s British Open / Sport England website, 2001 /. We can say that only the Woman’s British Open is accepted by the Ladies European Tour. One more issue, which is particularly associated with the question of golf is its impact on the environment. It is true that many people still continue protest against golf on the basis of environmental reasons, being for some part right as of course huge golf fields have a negative impact on the land’s biodiversity. Due to the modern golf equipment golfers are able to hit the ball much further than previously, which has lead to the increase of golf fiends by approximately 10 % / Sport England website, 2001 /. However, in spite of all difficulties, which faces golf, it still remains among the best and most popular games in the United Kingdom and for sure one of the most prestigious ones. References: BBC News (29 May 2005). Most school pupils ‘too inactive’. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4591141.stm (accessed 11 August 2005) Office for National Statistics (2005). UK 2005: The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Stationery Office, London. Environment Agency. 10 Things You Should Know About Angling. [Omline]. Available at: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk (23 February 2007). Sport England website. [Online]. Available from: (23 February 2007). Select Committee on Media, Culture and Sport - Minutes of Evidence. 5 April 2005: memorandum submitted by the Rugby Football Union. [Online]. Available from: (23 February 2007). BPS Workshop in association with BASES. [Online]. Available from; 23 February 2007. Taylor, M. Berthoud, R. and Jenkins, S. (2004) Low income and multiple disadvantage in Britain 1991 - 2001: Analysis of the British Household Panel Survey. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London. Sport England website. [Online]. Available from: (23 February 2007. Figures relate to 2001 Read More