Office debate: which sport is played more globally?

rick_chasey

Golf or Tennis?

DonDaddyD

Football.

rick_chasey

DonDaddyD wrote:

Football.

S'not the question innit.

jonginge

In numerical terms or geographical spread?

Maxticate

http://www.topendsports.com/world/lists ... ations.htm

Here you go.

Golf is not in the top ten list so Tennis is the more widely played.

rick_chasey

JonGinge wrote:

In numerical terms or geographical spread?

Numbers.

The context is (standard recruitment chat ):

If you wanted your kid to be a millionaire sportsman, what sport would it be in?

Now, football is the obvious answer, but boss doesn't like football, so he decided on golf.

So we were basically looking at the pyramid of earnings at the top versus the number of people who you'd be competing against - so in football, though there are many more millionaires who play, there are many more people vying for said position.

Something like motorsport would be good ( I suggested), but there are higher sunk costs...


Anyway, someone claimed that golf is played more often than tennis in relation to said debate. I'm not sure that's true, but I can't verify.

mudcow007

Fishing

jonginge

Rick Chasey wrote:

Anyway, someone claimed that golf is played more often than tennis in relation to said debate. I'm not sure that's true, but I can't verify.

I wouldn't be surprised. My dad plays golf. His club has a decent turnout every day of the week.

graeme_s-2

JonGinge wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Anyway, someone claimed that golf is played more often than tennis in relation to said debate. I'm not sure that's true, but I can't verify.

I wouldn't be surprised. My dad plays golf. His club has a decent turnout every day of the week.

This comes back to how you measure it doesn't it? If you play a round of golf 6 days a week (as my Grandad did during his retirement), are you counted once like someone who plays tennis once a week?

daviesee

To make money in this Country?
Tennis.
Lets face it. There's not much competition to be the No.2.

rick_chasey

daviesee wrote:

To make money in this Country?
Tennis.
Lets face it. There's not much competition to be the No.2.

Ah, an interesting angle.

Like it.

bigmat

I'm hoping my boy ends up as a 7 foot freak and I'll then pack him off to the States on a basketball scholarship. US sports are where the money's at - that includes Golf which is huge over there.

jonginge

Graeme_S wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Anyway, someone claimed that golf is played more often than tennis in relation to said debate. I'm not sure that's true, but I can't verify.

I wouldn't be surprised. My dad plays golf. His club has a decent turnout every day of the week.

This comes back to how you measure it doesn't it? If you play a round of golf 6 days a week (as my Grandad did during his retirement), are you counted once like someone who plays tennis once a week?

Indeed. There's lies, damn lies and statistics

rick_chasey

JonGinge wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Anyway, someone claimed that golf is played more often than tennis in relation to said debate. I'm not sure that's true, but I can't verify.

I wouldn't be surprised. My dad plays golf. His club has a decent turnout every day of the week.

This comes back to how you measure it doesn't it? If you play a round of golf 6 days a week (as my Grandad did during his retirement), are you counted once like someone who plays tennis once a week?

Indeed. There's lies, damn lies and statistics

I didn't think they were even comparable.

Golf's f*cking expensive, and tennis isn't.

Then again, golf is full of old people (like cycling).

The rule was play more than 25 times a year qualifies you as a 'player' of the sport.

mudcow007

BigMat wrote:

I'm hoping my boy ends up as a 7 foot freak and I'll then pack him off to the States on a basketball scholarship. US sports are where the money's at - that includes Golf which is huge over there.

aye, brother of my ex got a scholarship for basketball over in Delaware. He played for the Toxteth Tigers when he was over here

god knows how he is getting on now though

walkingbootweather

I usually get to hit the ball more often in a round of golf than a tennis match

FoldingJoe

I'd say, at the professional level, you can earn more money being mediocre at golf, especially on the US tour, than you could at tennis.

Drfabulous0

Is this a trick question? I can honestly not see any way in which Golf is a sport, it's just a game, fits in with darts and poker.

SmellTheGlove

Millionaire with least sustained effort - women's tennis by some margin I reckon. If genuinely talented (Henin, Clijsters, Williams - dare I say Capriati) you can keep going for aeons.
Pick a household name at random - Maria Kirilenko. Has had years with earnings near a milion despite rarely if ever featuring in the top twenty. Winning a slam? Forget it, though that's not a big deal in terms of rankings in either golf or tennis.
As for the original question, my guess and only a guess would be tennis, which seems to be borne out by other posters.

EKE_38BPM

If you want to get your leg over, I'd suggest becoming a tennis pro at a club frequented by bored, rich housewives. I think a pro at club level of either will make a decent living. Step up a level and there is more money in golf.

Just about every kid has a tennis bat but how many have golf sticks? By that rationale, I'd go with tennis, even if they only hit a flat ball over a loose net twice during the summer holidays and have to dodge broken glass as they do it.

PBo

Sigh.....the question just isn't precise enough.

Do we mean number of participants, or time spent playing it? By globally, do we just mean absolute numbers, or are we factoring in how widely spread it is?

The answer is tennis anyway.....

supersonic

Darts.

In the UK I would say there were more indivdual golfers than tennis players.

walkingbootweather

supersonic wrote:

In the UK I would say there were more indivdual golfers than tennis players.

Not suprising really. Have you ever tried to play tennis on your own?

EKE_38BPM

walkingbootweather wrote:

supersonic wrote:

In the UK I would say there were more indivdual golfers than tennis players.

Not suprising really. Have you ever tried to play tennis on your own?

Yes. The wall always wins.

supersonic

I do a lot of things on my own, is called getting old...

DonDaddyD

It's tennis. It involves less money and thus more accessible to a wider spread of people.

cyclingprop

supersonic wrote:

I do a lot of things on my own, is called getting old...

<overshare> Or married. </overshare>.

manglier

Tennis and golf are games, not sport.

EKE_38BPM

Manglier wrote:

Tennis and golf are games, not sport.

And golf is barely that.

tailwindhome

Rick Chasey wrote:

If you wanted your kid to be a millionaire sportsman, what sport would it be in?.

Golf must be far more popular than tennis in the US+UK. The rest of the world doesn't matter.

okgo

FoldingJoe wrote:

I'd say, at the professional level, you can earn more money being mediocre at golf, especially on the US tour, than you could at tennis.

Yep. Golf for money every time. A mate of mine is top 250 world tennis player and probably doesn't make much more than £80k a year. Golf you could earn more for being worse and earn it for a lot longer too.