I have longed thought soccer is the most flawed of sports because so much hinges—often the entire game—on an event outside the course of the normal action, the penalty kick. This puts a premium on the inherently subjective calls of the referee and also creates an incentive for the ridiculous faking of being tripped, injured etc.I would think any sport that involves human vs. human must, by definition, be exposed to some level of mediation and, potentially, subjectivity. After all, we can't depend on participants in sport to be honest and fair about fouls and rulings regarding whether something was in-play our out. Hence the need for referees or umpires.
Hockey suffers from the same problem, although not as starkly.
Basketball too is flawed in a somewhat similar way.
Football isn't entirely clean either, since pass interference and roughing calls loom so large.
Baseball is much cleaner. The umpiring brings an element of subjectivity, of course, but otherwise the game has simple rules and the action always involves a pitcher throwing to a batter and no special action outside of that framework.
And I suppose by these standards golf is the purest of all major sports.
That's why I don't think his use of golf as the "purest" of sports is perfect. That's really a battle of human vs. the course; the human vs. human element is merely a ranking that occurs after the man has fought the course. Still, golf has it's mediation -- was the ball in play or out; etc.
So I thought -- is there a "sport" that is pure by this standard ... one that needs no mediation oversight? I can't think of one. Even bowling involves a question of whether one's foot was over the foul line.
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