Whether or not an athlete has no effect whether the activity is a sport. The activity is what makes it a sport. Sure, many out-of-shape golfers can compete at a reasonably high level, but that does not mean every fat golfer is good, the same as how every in-shape athlete cannot compete at their sport at a high level.

The mental aspect of golf is incredibly hard, and all sports have both physical and mental demands. And mental aspect doesn’t mean only thinking, calculating. It also means keeping your emotions in check, blocking out negative thoughts, and having no doubts. Mental toughness. And golf is stretched over 3-4 hours. Usually 5-6 in tournaments. Imagine staying focused for 5 hours under the gun. Sure, most of golf is spent on walking, but bad thoughts creep into the mind, they are extremely hard to get rid of and will often cause poor shots and ruin rounds.

And as for the crowd being quiet, that is just tradition. Traditionally golf is played in a quiet setting and it is not that golfers need it to be quiet. Imagine if when shooting a free throw, it was quiet and then all of a sudden a loud noise rang in the ears. It would surprise anyone, but overtime, if repeated, the player would slowly become accustomed to the loud noise. Same would be true for golf. If golfers played everyday in a loud environment, soon they would become accustomed to it.

So technically golf is a sport, no matter how it is looked at.

I consider myself an athlete, and I consider golf a sport, albeit a different sport at that. I was a Boston Globe All Star for Track and Field, and I also played football and baseball in HS. I break more of a sweat and am far more tired from a round of golf than from a baseball game.
As to the “John Daly” argument. He sucks now. when he won, he looked like this: http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_golf/DALY_John_1993_SF_L.jpg im willing to go out on a limb and say hes not obese. If you look at the rising cream of the crop in golf, such as Kim, Villegas, and Mcilroy, they look like any of the other main stream sports rising stars.

to the fact that there isnt head to head competition. Ill play you one on one, for 10 bucks a hole, and see if when i land the ball close to the hole, there isnt pressure or that that isnt head to head competition.

golfs a sport if you treat it as one. The fat rich white guy who goes and hacks around for 18 with clients is not an athlete or playing a sport. PGA tour=sport. Anyone who says it isn’t, doesn’t know what golf really is.

Sports.

Sporting activities.

Games.

All fun, and like the blogger above mentioned, the physical condition of an athlete doesn’t quantify it as a sport. Just because a guy is fit and plays cards doesn’t make cards a sport. And because someone is out of shape but has the talent to play an activity or a sport doesn’t make it one or the other. But I will say for those who have never golfed, it is physical, most courses are about 5-6 miles in total to walk, and that includes uphills and down side banks. Plus swinging a club 70-120 times takes it’s toll. But in the end, I’m not getting tackled while I’m putting.

Anyone who thinks running is more of a sport than golf is truly an idiot.