It’s hard to imagine a sport more different from football than golf.

Football is all about contact, vicious contact at times.

Golf has no physical contact, except for that hilarious scene in “Happy Gilmore” where Bob Barker (RIP) and Adam Sandler duke it out on the course during a pro-am tournament.

Except for a few weekend warriors who risk tearing an ACL in a touch football game, playing football ends at a relatively young age.

Not golf, you can play golf - granted, many have to switch from walking to riding a cart - well into old age if you stay somewhat fit.

Football has a time limit, but not golf. If you are bad enough, you can be on the course from sun up to sun down.

Which is why I don’t understand the thinking behind average golfers. You pay a flat fee for 18 holes and then try your best to hit the fewest shots.

Why?

You would think you’d want to get your money’s worth and hit as many shots as possible. If you pay 50 bucks to play 18 holes and shoot a 100, your cost is 50 cents per shot. But if you shoot a 200, it’s 25 cents a shot, plus you are on the course longer, almost tripling the value of your experience.

In football, especially at the high school level, teams that are winning try to minimize the number of plays - run the ball to “eat up” the clock (always found that to be an odd way of phrasing it.)

The result is less contact, which is a good thing in the long run for players.

The two sports are quite different in another way for me. I enjoy a round of golf, but don’t really watch it on TV; I enjoy watching football on TV, but you won’t catch me lining up opposite Jim Thorpe’s Division I recruit Noah Rosahac, who is 6-5, 270 pounds.

Before we get into the rankings, an overall thought on the first week.

All nine of our area teams entered the season optimistic, but several - Northern Lehigh, Jim Thorpe, Lehighton and Tamaqua - took their lumps last week. One of these four teams will definitely get a win this week - Lehighton is at Tamaqua Friday night.

9 - Tamaqua

The Blue Raiders had 39 total yards last week against Northwestern, completing just one pass for five yards.

8 - Jim Thorpe

And speaking of stats. The Olympians gained just 13 yards on 22 carries.

7 - Lehighton

The Indians opened up the season against my No. 1 team and now get my No. 9 team in Tamaqua. Blue Raiders have a prime chance to get out of the basement.

6 - Northern Lehigh

For public high schools it’s like eating at my house in 1965 - you ate what was served. The Bulldogs are living that right now: You get the talent that lives in your school district, no recruiting. Northern Lehigh had loads of talent last year, the players graduated and now the Bulldog staff is doing what it can with what it has.

5 - Pleasant Valley

It’s not often coaches are “pleased” with a loss, but PV coach Blaec Saeger knows a 28-0 loss to Bethlehem Catholic is pretty darn good for a team that lost some really good players to graduation. The Bears showed, along with Stroudsburg (14-0 loss to Freedom), that they have a shot at being Monroe County’s best team.

4 - Panther Valley

There is no doubt in my mind that Northern Lehigh would beat Panther Valley, but the Panthers won last week so they get rewarded.

3 - Marian

Minersville beat the Colts 20-12 a year ago, but Marian’s 27-0 blanking of Schuylkill Haven shows the Colts have a legitimate shot at starting the season 2-0.

2 - Northwestern

Coaches love to say take them one game at a time, but you can bet as soon as the Tigers got up a few scores last week against Tamaqua, they started looking to tonight’s game. A year ago, Northern Lehigh won a thriller 34-27. After graduating several top playere from last year’s squad, the Bulldogs’ bark is quite a bit quieter this year. The Tigers will not let off the gas until this one is well out of reach.

1 - Palmerton

10 rushes for 172 yards and 11-of-15 passes completed for 180 yards. Not team stats; Matt Michalik stats.

Not our fault: Sharp-eyed readers of our sports section, or readers like me who have no social life, probably noticed the score of the Central Dauphin East-Reading game last week reported as 110-18 CD East. Score was actually 55-18. Here is exactly how that happened, not only in our paper but probably most papers in the state. Our sports staff waits until the last possible second to pick up scores from the Associated Press so we can give you the most comprehensive list from around the state. No time to edit, just put in, push the button and start the presses. So, someone, someplace doubled the score of the winning team (I’m thinking sophomore prank by an intern). We plead not guilty to this miscue.