Near the end of the movie Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, there's a scene where Jones (James Caviezel) is asked what's wrong with him that he isn't taking money from sponsors yet.
And Jones responds that the word amateur comes from the Latin word for love and that once you start taking money for something, it's not love anymore. Then O.B. Keeler (Malcolm McDowell) adds that money is going to ruin sports.
You may make an argument for Keeler's thoughts, but I suppose the film Jones is completely incorrect. And if that's what the actual Jones truly believed, I'd have to call him a hypocrite.
I got to thinking about this today when Phil posted a link on Facebook to a Golf Digest article called There's a Class Divide in Junior Golf and We're on the Wrong Side of It . The article's subtitle says it all:
Golf must be a meritocracy, however it is tough not to experience like sure kids are granted a head begin.It details one family's problems financing their teenage daughter's attempts to play amateur golf. It talks about how the kids whose parents had money to spare had access to so many more instructors, equipment (the occasional TrackMan was mentioned), playing opportunities and even college offers. It also detailed how the lack of opportunities compared to those more privileged kids threatened their daughter's dreams, how despair took its toll on her.
Ironically, she has endured to play because of two things. Her father struggled with comparable problems developing up, so he has been capable of deliver her some perspective.
The different purpose is that, in spite of all of the financial limitations in her manner, she maintains to chase her dream due to the fact she loves the sport.
You would possibly suppose it truly is backwards of what Jones is saying inside the movie. Jones says that taking cash kills love, while I'm pronouncing that being barred from money can kill love. But you're false impression my point.
See, if money kills your love for golf (or anything for that matter) then you didn't really love it in the first place -- you loved the money you thought it would bring you. And i repeat, if the real Jones really did believe what his character says in the movie, I would call him a hypocrite. After all, Jones came from a family of lawyers and businessmen, who could afford to send him to college for not one but TWO degrees -- and just the law degree would have cost a fortune! Jones never had to worry about the money necessary to travel across country or overseas to play in amateur events.
The film Jones should talk approximately how terrible money become because he had all of the cash he wanted. To say that being an newbie made him higher than folks who took cash for gambling makes him a hypocrite. And if it is how the actual Jones felt... Nicely, I could suppose less of him because he had no room to talk. He failed to know what it changed into like for a REAL novice, who typically has little money to finance his or her love of the sport.
There's a Bible verse that gets misquoted all the time. It's 1 Timothy 6:10. People think it says that money is the root of all evil, but what it actually says is " the love of money is the root of all evil." There are people who have a great deal of money but it doesn't have a hold on them, and there are people who have only a little but it rules their lives.
Money isn't always the problem for us. It's how we sense approximately money, how much cash controls us. We pay attention older players talk approximately how Bernhard Langer remains driven to be triumphant at golf at the same time as they do not. The motive is easy: Bernhard still loves the game greater than the money.
The problem these days is not that cash steals an beginner's love for golfing. The trouble is that money has emerge as any such big barrier to indulging our love for golfing that most effective the rich or the professionals can genuinely manage to pay for it. It is not the amateurs who are elevating that barrier; instead, it is the people who stand to make the most money off of them.
And until that problem is removed, golf will never be what we all think it should be.
End of rant.
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