The Green Blazer may be peering too far through the haze on this one, but did anyone notice the considerable amount of war jargon that was tossed around in reference to last week's HSBC Champions tournament?
The headline "Shanghai is a war zone as golf’s battle for No.1 begins" was the first to jump out at us, but there have been others. Not to mention this photo from The Associated Press, which playfully illustrates Phil Mickelson and Martin Kaymer going to battle in classic swordsman fighter's stances.
It's true, there was a metaphorical war going on over the coveted No. 1 spot last weekend, as Mickelson, Kaymer, Lee Westwood, and Tiger Woods all had a shot at nabbing the No. 1 ranking at the event that has been referred to as China's major. Even though Francesco Moninari won the tournament, it was Westwood who ended up winning the battle and keeping his No. 1 ranking.
But for some, the media-embraced war clichés are doing more than symbolizing the intensity of the fight for the top spot. They are hearkening back to a time when a golf-war analogy couldn’t be thrown around without many taking it literally.
This circa-1940 "temporary rules card" from England’s Richmond Golf Club was recently forwarded to the Blazer as part of a chain of Internet meme (its cyberspace momentum perpetuated, no doubt, by members of the e-mail-chain-loving baby boomer generation). It’s an artifact from the WWII era, when golf and war did not have enough distance between them to allow for metaphors that combined the two. The sender, who refers to his or herself only as "Nice Ash," says it’s 100 percent real.
Normally, The Green Blazer Corps deletes messages from the e-mail forwarding baby boomer generation as nonchalantly as hack bumping his lie, but this one obviously grabbed our attention.
And speaking of nonchalance, how bout those Brits?
