In summary, you should try liking things that a lot of other people like because you might like them yourself and it will help you make conversation with those that also like them.
My father has been a sales guy for a long time, and he got into playing golf for this reason. He never liked watching sports, which if you're in sales is a bit of a handicap. He doesn't even know the rules of a football game. So the golf gave him something in that space to talk with others about, without having to keep on top of sports news.
Plus it's OK if you suck at golf, everyone you're playing with sucks too. And if they don't suck, you make them look even better. And you get to walk around on a (usually) nicely manicured bit of grass on a (hopefully) sunny day.
I've always been a football fan, but never cared too much for baseball, basketball, or hockey (probably because the season has too many games and it's hard to maintain interest). When I was doing construction sales, I made sure to scan the sports page every morning to ensure I had a few tidbits to throw out about every sport. Worked like a charm, especially in construction.
"Oh yeah that's a classic! The 20x6 line has really turned MegaPutt around in recent years. Myself, I can't get enough of anything SportStick comes up with, I got walls of their clubs at home."
The idea's that a conversation gets redirected, not just stopped outright like it would with a reply of "I don't watch sports."
DISCLAIMER: I don't know how golf works beyond what Wii Golf taught me, and that was years ago.
In a world of pedants it wouldn't but the same way short genre fiction and multi volume biographies get lumped together in "reading" any sport is enough to give you a couple of sports related conversational gambits.
I worked in a bar for a long time. I love playing basketball, and I'm the best pool player in my area (and the bar was full of pool players).
That never sufficed for knowing about football. People want to talk football.
They like talking pool with me too, and it's not like I was cast out of the social circle over it--but most sports conversations, in my experience, start out very specifically.
"Who you like in the SEC this year?"
"You been watching this cheating stuff with Belichick?"
Don't know who Belichick is? You're not going to fudge a conversation, most likely.
