Tee For None

How Hugo Chavez is making golf a game between rich and poor.

By: Laurence Bass
Illustration by: Ryan Kobane

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To the American public, the speeches of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez often ring with the same eloquence of Nikita Khrushchev’s shoe-hammering performance at the United Nations in 1960. His words are fervent enough to garner attention, but he lacks the diplomatic weight to be taken seriously. The litany of declarations and condemnations Chávez has made since his first term in 1999 is a bottomless well of material for punch line pundits and fodder for Sunday morning political roundtables. More recently, the enigmatic leader gave the stateside media more ammunition when he sized-up the latest threat to his beloved Venezuela—a small, white ball with a million and one dimples.

During a Venezuelan televised press conference held on August 15th, furrowed brow and all, Chávez expressed his philosophy on the Gentleman’s Game. “I respect all sports, but there are sports and then there are sports,” Chávez said. “Do you mean to tell me that this is a people’s sport?” He continued to jokingly paint a picture of obese men crowding a tiny golf cart, too lazy to walk, aimlessly whacking a ball into the air. The orange-uniformed audience of reporters laughed at Chávez’s summation. Once the chuckles died down, President Chávez unveiled his rationale as to why golf should not be played on Venezuelan soil. “Let’s leave this clear, golf is a bourgeois sport,” the President said. He followed that statement up with how the government could do more for the poor with the acquisition of that land. Regardless of his good intentions, many question Chávez’s true motivation for the upheaval of the game.  

“His use of the term “bourgeois” is typical of his ‘XXIst Century Socialism’ speech for his captive audience,” Chela Quintana says about the President’s rhetoric. “He has been trying for some years now to create the great divide between the ‘evil rich’ and the ‘poor who are their victims’.” Quintana, raised in Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas, is an eight-time Venezuelan amateur champion and former LPGA Tour professional. “Golf, as any other sport, deserves respect and assistance from government officials, starting with the President,” says Quintana referring to the lack of support from Chávez. She continues, “…this is all simply part of his Socialist talk against the poor in order to distract the attention of the people from the real problems that are destroying Venezuela: public hospitals closing down due to lack of supplies and facilities, inadequate and insufficient schools, no infrastructure, and blackouts due to a badly run electricity company [that was recently nationalized].”