Golf to be Democratized - will thousands of golfers be killed or forced from the game?

When I saw the headline from Geoff Shackelford - “We feel we are democratising golf” - my blood ran cold. Because as we’ve all learned, you can’t democratize anything without leaving hundreds of thousands of corpses.

Then questions starting slamming into my mind - Would golfers be bombarded with a “Shock and Awe” type attack so that golf democracy could be put into place while golfers were too terrorized and beaten down to respond? Would golfers even be able to understand Democracy after decades of living under the twin tyrannical regimes of the USGA and PGA? Would everyone involved in the current “golfist regime” be banned from golf, thereby creating an insurgent force that would radicalize and then torment the game for years to come?

I was terrified, let me tell you. Then I realized it was just about gambling, so it’s cool.

American executives frustrated by online poker bans have been taking to the virtual golf course, where they can work on lowering their handicaps and make money at the same time.

Utour Golf and World Golf Tour are two sites exploiting a developing demographic of casual gamers: males over 30 looking to compete with one another online.

Utour has staged more than 500,000 games on four different online courses during its beta testing phase and allows wagers of up to $100 on a single hole. There is stroke play or match play for pairs and tournaments where thousands of dollars can be at stake.

Groove Games, the company behind Utour, says the golf prizes are not classified as gambling as golf is a skill-based game rather than one of chance. …

“We feel we are democratising golf,” said YuChiang Cheng, chief executive. “For those who think it’s too expensive and takes too much time, this is free and you can just play from your desk.”

So that’s fine. After all, if there’s one thing golfers understand, it’s gambling. And nothing makes the world - and golf - a better place than more and diverse ways to gamble.

–WKW