Golf - Art or Science?

[Canfordhacker]

In most of life I am about facts. Studied engineering, work with computers, love stats. But when it comes to golf I find myself torn - it's a simple premise - make a repetetive motion for the desired effect. Yet I find I play best when I just do it and enjoy it rather than analyse it.

So despite all the technology and analysis, I reckon it's an art.

What do you think?

 

[TonyN]

Art, I bet No two swings are the same! If it is art, Furyk's swing is one of those ugly pictures that sells for millions!

 

[madandra]

By using science I think WE like to think we are ARTISTS.
Most of the time I play golf with the artistry of a 2 year old using their hands and feet.

 

[donutwheels]

As Bruce Lee once said-

'In the beginning, a punch is just a punch. As you improve, a punch becomes more than just a punch. Eventually, a punch becomes just a punch'

Or something along those lines.

I think it works with golf.

 

[bobmac]

Poor old Jim Furyk. His name is always mentioned when people talk about strange swings. I wouldn't mind being a fiver behind him.
I think the long game is likened to the artist setting up the easle and stretching the canvas on the board. It's the short game where the artistry comes into its own.
There are so many types of shots a talented golfer can play around the greens it's up to the imagination to figure out which one is best suited for the shot.
If you ever play with someone who has a good short game it's a pleasure to watch.

 

[John_Findlay]

The swing is a bio-mechanical thing, with one result being produced by another, so logically it's scientific. But when you throw feel, touch and imagination into the mix then surely the game itself is an art.

A lot of the Rotella books etc talk about fogetting the swing thoughts when you're actually playing. Playing on instinct. Is that more art or science?

 

[Leftie]

Using one's skill to achieve a desired result is (an) art - whether carpentry, cooking, painting, motor racing, composing music, chipping, putting, whatever.

Seve's recovery shots, Michelson or Wood's short game. Pure art.

 

[USER1999]

But if looked at as an exercise to get a ball from here, to there, then it is just geometry and mechanics. It only becomes art, when the brain gets in the way, and prevents the geometry/mechanic thing from happening.

If my golf is art, it is abstract, as you can't tell what it is just by looking.

 

[Leftie]

If my golf is art, it is abstract, as you can't tell what it is just by looking.

I've seen your golf Murph and would never dream of calling it a load of Jackson Pollocks

 

[need_my_wedge]

You think Furyk's got a bad swing, have you seen Charles Barkley?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50K65PNeBU

 

[Canfordhacker]

Surely Barkley's swing proves it is art. He has probably paid a fortune for it, and nobody else would want it anyway.

I agree with Bobmac about the easel and the brushes.

 

[Cernunnos]

In most of life I am about facts. Studied engineering, work with computers, love stats. But when it comes to golf I find myself torn - it's a simple premise - make a repetetive motion for the desired effect. Yet I find I play best when I just do it and enjoy it rather than analyse it.

So despite all the technology and analysis, I reckon it's an art.

What do you think?

Its both...

You are torn, because you know its both. Though the question perhaps should actually be; is the art of the golf swing or the science of the golf swing etc, be more important. Again there is no clear answer, as both are intertwined.

I think at the end of the day, I'd like to say the art. The feel. The mystiscism, if you like. Of the golf swing, is perhaps what should be more important.

The Mysticism of the golf swing. After all for most of us Golf is nigh on a religion.

 

[USER1999]

Charles Berkley is now being coached by Hank Haney, TW's coach. Let's hope some of the originality of CB's swing rubs off on TW. It would be way more fun to watch.

 

[Herbie]

I think playing golf is incidentally scientific but practically skill and/or Art, art is in the eye of the beholder even though the colour has run a little!

 

[RGuk]

At what point does science and the pedagogical approach to teaching translate into art?

It's a gift of a question to any student at uni!!!

Answers on no more than two sides of A4 in my pigeon hole by lunchtime tomorrow....

 

[RGuk]

PS....I'm prepared to answer it if anyone wants to know.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

In theory it should be scientifc, the study of the physics of the body turning around a fixed point and the application of motion and a square club through impact etc etc etc

However in reality for most of us the joy of flushing a drive straight down the middle, peppering the flag from 150 yards, a delicate chip over a bunker next to the hole or draining a long putt turns the mediocre golf we normally endure into an art form even if its just for one shot.

 

[bobmac]

At what point does science and the pedagogical approach to teaching translate into art?

Answers on no more than two sides of A4 in my pigeon hole by lunchtime tomorrow....

What's A4?

 

[Herbie]

well pedagogical if I recall is a scientific method of teaching so I dont quite follow just yet so I will look it up.


And I hope I get extra marks for doing so.

 

[viscount17]

At what point does science and the pedagogical approach to teaching translate into art?

Answers on no more than two sides of A4 in my pigeon hole by lunchtime tomorrow....

What's A4?

The road from Earl's Court to Avonmouth