What Is It About Golf?

Now don’t get me wrong, I really don’t have strong feelings about golf and the people who play it. Ok, I think it’s a boring sport, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to destroy areas of beautiful woodland to replace them with golf courses so that constructors can sell more houses. Otherwise, my general approach to the sport is tolerant, each to their own.

Unfortunately it seems that there are those with less tolerant views on the other side of the fence. A fine piece of open land in Chamberi - in the centre of Madrid - which was going to be converted into a public park for the benefit of all the local community, is now instead going to become a 9 hole golf course and practice centre. The regional government of Madrid declares this project to be of “general interest”, presumably even more so than a park would be. Now I’ve asked around at work a bit and have yet to find anyone who plays golf, none of the people I know in Madrid are golf players – unless they do it secretly. Maybe I mix in the wrong circles but somehow I don't get the feeling that the decision was taken after a tough meeting where the question of general interest was debated at length.

Playing in the park

So there we have it, even if you don't want to play golf you might find soon that it becomes a compulsory part of citizenship. Madrid residents may end up having their political reliability tested depending on whether they can tell two golf clubs apart. Why don’t they just convert the Santiago Bernabeu into a golf course, there is not much else happening there at the moment? In the general interest of course.