Two Games, Two Worlds

Rugby and golf are both popular sports in Britain, but they could not be more different. If you watch one and then the other, you might wonder how they belong to the same word, “sport.”

Rugby is loud and physical. Thirty large players run at each other on a muddy field, and they fall down again and again. The crowd shouts the whole time. To be a good rugby player, you must be strong and brave, and you must enjoy a hard, fast game. A rugby match feels like a battle.

Golf is the opposite. It is quiet and slow. One player stands alone on the green grass and hits a small white ball into a tiny hole, while everybody around stays silent. A round of golf can last four hours, and almost nothing seems to happen. To play golf well, you need patience and control, not speed or strength.

The players are different too. A rugby player is usually big and powerful. A golfer can be tall or short, young or old; some of the best are over fifty. Yet both sports need real skill, and the top competitors in each are extremely talented. A good coach will tell you that a calm mind is as useful in golf as a strong body is in rugby.

So which is better? That depends on you. Some people love the noise and the racing bodies of rugby, while others prefer the calm and the careful thinking of golf. They are both difficult, both competitive, and both, in their own way, beautiful to watch.