Does Golf count as an outdoor pursuit?

I hope the answer to that question is yes because I have to admit to being rather smitten with it! My son started playing & in order for us to be able to spend some ‘quality time’ together I decided to take it up too. But, very quickly, this became like a guilty pleasure - as though I was betraying the outdoors by fraternising with the enemy. Surely, as someone committed to the enjoyment of the great outdoors, let alone running a channel dedicated to outdoors programming, I couldn’t side with the 'pink roll neck & chequered trouser' brigade? Surely I must be on side with Mark Twain, not wishing to spoil any walk with the disruption of hitting (let alone trying to find) a small white ball!

So why then, do I find myself with similar feelings & thoughts when setting out on the course, as I do when heading out into the New Forest for a good hike? The other day we came across a Green Woodpecker on the fairway, gloriously oblivious to our presence & closer than I have ever managed to get in the wild. So does this encounter not constitute an ‘outdoors moment’ simply because the environment is man made & there purely for the enactment of a rather silly, if incredibly engrossing game?

Let's consider this a little. When venturing out into the wilderness, we often think we are experiencing an environment devoid of human intervention – it’s wild, untouched, beautiful in its purity. But in reality even our wildest spots are as they are because of man’s activity, from the Scottish Highlands, shaped by the great clearances to deforested mountain ranges. There really is very little in the world, let alone in this country that represents the planet left untouched. So maybe we should worry less about the nature of the landscape & just celebrate any activity that takes you outside & into a beautiful environment, whether that be a golf course or the Isle of Skye.

In defence of golf (albeit with a remaining air of detachment from the golfing community itself) it is a gentle sport where taking pleasure in your surroundings is all part of the game & that surely is no bad thing? OK there are arguments against the building of courses & water usage which are fully justified but that’s a different discussion.

It could be argued that golf is just ahead of the curve in that it requires a landscaped facility. Mountain Biking is burgeoning again partly as a result of the construction of trail centres, which are hugely popular. White water kayaking now almost exclusively uses man made courses for major international competitions & one of the oldest outdoor pursuits – skiing - has used pistes for 150 years or so. So the argument about golf using a man made course just doesn’t stack up.

It is more likely then that the qualification for inclusion in the outdoors enthusiast’s acceptable pursuit list is more about a certain lifestyle image than the activity itself. In that respect golf just doesn’t cut it! But I don’t care. I like to dress in sharp suits & stroll round Westminster & the Embankment whenever I’m in town but equally, I love crashing in the back of my van on filming trips, cooking up pasta on my Trangia & layering up in fleeces & a softshell! The suits don’t cancel out the softshell & golf doesn’t cancel out mountaineering. Nor should it. An ‘outdoors lifestyle’ shouldn’t be an exclusive set up, an ‘either, or’ option.

So, my guilty pleasure is not golf, it is not caring! All I have to do now is worry about my handicap which is, at the moment, being really rather bad at golf!

Roger Burlinson
Creative Director - Outdoors TV