Tennis and golf seem so much different than almost all other sports. Baseball is the most intense with a pitcher throwing a ball towards you at over 100mph. NFL quarterbacks have to go to a silent count to snap the ball because they can’t hear the call. Basketball, Soccer (futball), Rugby, NFL, hockey, etc… all allow as much noise as you can make. Most teams will also encourage noise when the opponent has the ball. Why is tennis and golf an outlier?
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For golf at the professional level, the margin of error is around 1° for how square you hit the ball and a few blades of grass between the club face and ball can drastically change how the ball flies. It highly precise and full concentration is required. No crowd noise helps a lot. That being said, I’m sure if the sport had evolved with crowds making a bunch of noise then it would be different.
Note that there are a few tournaments every year where crowd noise is encouraged. The Waste Management Open has grandstands and is extremely noisy. The Canadian Open crowd treats it like a hockey game. The Ryder Cup is generally very loud with crowds trying to throw off the visiting team. The Ryder Cup is the best players from the US vs the best players from Europe and the host rotates between the US and Europe. When it’s in Europe, the crowds try to throw off the US players and vice versa when the US hosts. These are some of the best tournaments every year and players love to play in them.
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