Traveling in my trusty, imaginary time machine, I have just returned from a quick tour of golf a century from now.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I found.<\/p>\n
First, I discovered a very few people trained to be professional athletes and they were bigger, faster, and stronger than most anyone playing sports today \u2013 truly something to behold.\u00a0 They were schooled in the field of entertainment and adept at pleasing their audience, though they never make any political or social statements with their play.\u00a0 Thus they commanded large government fees for sharing their lives with their fans through sophisticated communication devises \u2013 almost becoming virtual family members with their fans.\u00a0 (They were no taxes for them.)\u00a0 This included \u201celite golfers\u201d who the government included with other \u201csports ambassadors.\u201d<\/p>\n
These elite golfers played a ball that travels much shorter, but they are still able to hit it nearly 300 yards in simulated conditions or outside on the few occasions they play there.\u00a0 (This ball was initially developed for The Masters many years earlier.) Everyone else has become more sedentary.\u00a0 Medicine has resolved obesity and diabetes, but with people able to manifest any informational or visual experience instantly on a wall or a piece of cloth, there is little incentive to walk, let along run.\u00a0 Why travel when the world comes to you?<\/p>\n
Recreational golf is almost entirely played in sophisticated simulators and the percentage of the total population that plays this has grown.\u00a0 There are simulators in places of worship, food dispensaries, and in the any places where one might have to wait.\u00a0\u00a0 As a result, for nearly four decades, indoor simulated 3-D golf has overtaken outdoor golf courses.\u00a0 This happened as land, water, social, and political pressures rendered the outdoor use of such large, precious properties for the few an unacceptable tradeoff.\u00a0 Indoor golf was run by the government, which was also the sole supplier of equipment.\u00a0 (The United States Golf Association apparently dissolved in the latter 2070s, as did many other sports governing organizations.)<\/p>\n
The game is marketed as a \u201cwonderful social and health interaction for citizens\u201d as the simulated golf includes therapeutic rejuvenating light frequencies, filtered smog-free healthy breezes, and whatever weather conditions the golfer desires.\u00a0 Golfers can call up a crisp autumn morning in the mid-latitudes or a humid day in the tropics, but are never threatened by lightning.\u00a0 Sun and Vitamin D intensity can be dialed in minus the harmful ultra-violet waves.\u00a0 Soothing aromatherapy in the form of salt air to complement a links golf or azalea and dogwood are just a few of many options to accompany your round.\u00a0 Advanced mineral and vitamin supplements, and calming prescription agents approved by the State are misted into the golfing booths.\u00a0 Soothing bird noises, rustling leaves, and ocean waves can be ordered, but all come with subliminal messages from the government.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s Health Services Department oversaw golf and anyone was eligible to enjoy the facilities for free in return for a few hours of surveillance monitoring or other volunteer service to the State.\u00a0 (All services were electronically monitored, as there was no money exchanged.) Competitions were devised between different clubs or individuals via social networks, and in lieu of community service, play could be purchased in lots of 15-minute intervals, but anything more than 90 minutes was rare.\u00a0 Approximately 30% of golfers could play in their homes and that number was expected to double in the next ten years as the technology would make the price more affordable and the government wanted less congestion in public places.<\/p>\n
Scoring was handled automatically, and the machines dictate the rules of play so that the participant doesn\u2019t have to know or worry about them. This eliminates cheating. \u00a0Thanks to GPS data chips inserted into every newborn baby, a complete history of play and pay for every person at every simulated course over their lifetime is immediately available to anyone \u2013 virtually eliminating \u201csandbagging.\u201d \u00a0It also allowed the government to know exactly play occurred and where new simulators would be needed.<\/p>\n
The visual experiences of these simulators were amazing and I was able to re-visit and play many of the masterpiece golf courses of the first-half of the 21st<\/sup> century before they began to rapidly disappear.\u00a0 As a matter of law, all of the less than 900 outdoor golf courses that still remained were required to be duplicated for simulation so that all citizens could enjoy them.<\/p>\n Speaking of golf courses, several of the St. Andrews golf courses including the venerable Old Course were lost to the North Sea as were several along the US Atlantic seaboard and the Caribbean.\u00a0 Most of the multiple-course clubs such as Merion, Los Angeles CC, Olympic Club, and Winged Foot were been long ago forced to close one of their courses while most of the other courses simply disappeared.\u00a0 By actual count there were fewer than 900 outdoor golf courses that exist throughout the World.\u00a0 Those that do are well guarded and are the preserves of the very wealthy and powerful heads of the worldwide government.\u00a0 Government taxes for outdoor golf are high and the annual cost of belonging is in excess of $5 million (2010 dollars).\u00a0 It was anticipated that by 2150, there would be less than fifty American golf courses, though that was debatable because the leaders of the government are usually the only outdoor course members.<\/p>\n Professional golf was funded by subscriptions and visually streamed to all sorts of communication devises that included body parts and implants as well as walls.\u00a0 For about two decades there was a tussle between the PGA TOUR and the INDOOR TOUR, but this disappeared with the disappearance of outdoor golf courses and became a moot point once the Government took over, not wanting the game to perish.\u00a0 Now the Masters at Augusta National remained the only outdoor event played in the Western Hemisphere due to the fact that its members essentially control the Government.\u00a0 Interestingly the already mentioned \u201cMasters Ball\u201d was still very much alive as the standard in the simulators as well due to the overwhelming power and influence of its members who were akin to the aristocratic elite controlling world trade and government and destroying those who might oppose them through their iron-fisted control of the media.<\/p>\n Most of the other few outdoor events were played in Africa and Asia.\u00a0 The LPGA and the PGA TOUR were both swallowed up by the Sports & Recreation Department, which has also taken over the Ryder Cup and PGA Indoor Championships.\u00a0 (The PGA of America and Golf Course Superintendents Associations disappeared with the closure of most of the golf courses approximately 40-50 years earlier.)<\/p>\n Interestingly, the Government did maintain a Golf Hall of Fame, but only a small section is devoted to the outdoor game and that only extended to the Masters tournament.\u00a0 Youngsters are quick to point to Datar, Woolfey, and BlackWhite who have both won all the indoor championships, but will stare blankly at the mention of men who had not won the Masters and women.\u00a0\u00a0 The names of Morris, Vardon, Hagen, Wright, Whitworth, Zaharias, Sorenstam, and Berg were available with advanced archival research, but I could not find a single \u201cexpert\u201d that even knew a thing about them.<\/p>\n Women also still played the game professionally and in fine style might I add.\u00a0 That said, I came away with the distinct impression that they must have passed through a process akin to Hollywood casting because they all looked like Angelina Jolie or her counterparts around the World.\u00a0 While they played for their own purses, they played for the exact same amounts of money as the men.\u00a0 With people living much longer, the Champions Tour was dissolved decades earlier and it is presumed that in the next few years there would be 100-year old men and women athletes competing at the highest levels.\u00a0 This proved a boom to the women\u2019s game with the remarkable and charismatic 93-year old Pixy Fish still combining her skills as the all-time women\u2019s tournament winner with 112 victories with being one of the world\u2019s best regarded dancer\/singers.\u00a0 She was still hitting the ball as far as the 25-year olds.\u00a0 On a side note, with people living past 200, there were not only economic concerns, but also how might these new \u201cmiddle-aged\u201d folks adjust for such a long remainder of their life.<\/p>\n I would tell folks about the 1960s and 70s when people would actually trek several miles outside around a golf course, often through all kinds of weather, and actually speak, joke, and cajole their playing partners. \u00a0\u00a0I would recount how weather could cancel rounds or impact the very condition of the courses themselves.\u00a0 People were fascinated to learn that there were people who sole job was to maintain a golf course or that there were dozen of companies that manufactured golf equipment. They would laugh when they learn that clubs were made from trees or that anything but a good strike would put a \u201csmile\u201d on the golf ball rendering them useless.\u00a0 They were amazed at a ball retriever, a shag bag, and a pull-cart for what possible use could they have?<\/p>\n Sure those 3-D simulators were pretty amazing, and their superstars Datar and BlackWhite were as exciting as Arnie and Annika, but I am glad that I lived in an era during the 1960s and 1970s when golf was still natural, walkable, and a fun, fast outdoor experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"