Alternative sport to golf

I dislike this game because it takes up a lot of land and water but don't require the players to be physically fit.

Could an alternative game become popular that would serve the social function of golf while either be less stressful to the environment or more challenging to the players?

I was thinking perhaps archery. An inexplicably unpopular sport.
 
Snooker. Balls and sticks, all used on a green surface with holes. You can drink while playing snooker, too, just as with golf.
 
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Well fox hunting definitely had a lot of the general elements of golf: outdoors, expensive equipment, lots of terrain to cover. The ground can also be used for other purposes when not being used for the hunt, which makes it much less offensive than golf, unless you think it's cruel to the foxes/horses/hounds.

There are several sports that are actually marginally popular here (in Maryland) that might work. A version of hunting that doesn't involve killing the foxes, just having the dogs chase them to their holes and marking them is one. There's also the steeplechase, popular in lots of country places. And then there's our state sport, a sort of half-assed version of jousting using a series of rings as the target.

The one that requires the least physical fitness and the most expense is probably the "marking/hunt," which is basically just a walk in the country with a lot of barking.
 
I happen to agree with you; golf is a waste of space. Not only that, it is also destructive to the environment around it.

Archery? I think darts might be a little better; can do that indoors. What about bowling?
 
Tennis has a lot of the same social applications as golf. At least, it's depicted as such in the media. It seems like people get into it too much for it to be the primarily social game that golf is today. I suppose you could have something like croquet work for this purpose.

Of course, there are always the fun options. I think it would be kind of cool to see business execs and politicians fencing, for example. It would be a nice visual representation of their careers.
 
Equestrian sports have the problem of being inaccessible to city people as well as being too involved for the casual player. The attraction of golf is it allows people of various skill levels to walk and talk as a group. It's like having a business lunch, but slightly more physical.

I was thinking about Disc Golf as a possible replacement. This is basically golf but instead of hitting balls into holes they throw discs at targets. The main advantage is they use natural terrain instead of manicured lawns and therefore don't waste water.

It would be interesting if an archery game can be created using the same principle. Have people carry quiver full of arrows walking around a park shooting at over sized targets. They shoot until a hit is made, then advance to the next target. Scoring is a function of accuracy and number of arrows left.

Since this game does not require lawns, its simply a matter of having an open space preserve which every city needs anyways. Archery is a game familiar to every culture, thus the appeal should be universal. It was also a game of kings, unlike golf which started as Scottish shepherds disposing sheep droppings.
 
Any outside sport in Australia without manicured lawns is a death trap, snakes don't really like golf courses.
 

Hendryk

Banned
I dislike this game because it takes up a lot of land and water but don't require the players to be physically fit.
Seconded about golf being an absurdly resource-intensive sport. Maintaining those impeccable lawns in drier countries takes up ridiculous amounts of water, and in wetter ones the golf courses are on prime arable land.

What I'd suggest instead is pétanque or one of its variants. A few square meters of gravel or beaten dirt, and you're good to go.
 
Archery is a bit of a niche sport because it's relatively expensive to buy the equipment, and thus it's only really popular to the middle classes in a handful of countries. The South Koreans dominate global competition archery precisely because they have a highly developed middle class..

The cost of a half-decent recurve bow costs the buyer as much as a bag of golf clubs. Plus there's the issue of arrows (which break all-too-easily and can cost upwards of $20 for a single arrow), targets and shooting ranges... and the fact that it is a sport which is explicitly capable of killing people, much akin to gun shooting, except a lot more fiddly and "lower-tech"...

Archery also puts noticeably uneven strains on the body. I shot right-handed for over a year, but had to switch to left-handed archery precisely because of this - my string-pulling wrist was giving way and I had shoulder aches for days after shooting practice. I'd recommend switching hands from time to time if you're a traditional longbow archer, by the way, it's great fun if you're not too bothered about competing.

Golf has its merits in that a 50-year-old is only slightly handicapped against a 30-year-old of equal skill; stick them both on a tennis court and the 50-year-old is in serious trouble.

Tennis is a great sport to play but requires a higher level of physical fitness, plus exertion (play two hours of tennis and then compare it with two hours of golf...). Golf doesn't just involve the sport; it can involve a good conversation between strokes, because most of one's time playing golf appears to be spent walking.

But what could replace golf?

(snip)

What I'd suggest instead is pétanque or one of its variants. A few square meters of gravel or beaten dirt, and you're good to go.

I like your style.
 
What I'd suggest instead is pétanque or one of its variants. A few square meters of gravel or beaten dirt, and you're good to go.
Exactly, lawn bowling. Perfect for fans of English sea power--you can drink while playing it, as with golf, and Drake was playing bowls just before sailing to meet the Armada.
 
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