Some Curious and Mysterious Observations About Golf
The fascination of golf has endured for over 500 years. Golf continues to command a large a share of attention of serious and thoughtful people. Golfers often make it sound like playing golf can be a life changing experience.
So, what accounts for this powerful fascination with the Game of Golf?
I thought it would be fun to share some observations from Arnold Haultain, a Canadian writer, published as The Mystery of Golf in 1908.
In other sports, if a player has an off day, rarely does the level of play drop off as drastically as it can for the golfer who loses the swing. What makes golf unique in this regard?
When golfers are playing poorly they usually have a fairly good idea of what's bringing that about. However, when they're playing better than usual they rarely have any idea about what it is that allows that to happen.
Golfers may think they’ve figured out some breakthrough after a long day at the range only to wake up the next morning with no idea how to re-capture that magic.
All it takes is that one shot with the ball soaring in the air against the blue sky, free of gravity, a shot created by an effortless and mysterious golf swing to create an addiction.
The mind has as much if not more to do with the game as the hand and the eye. It is this psychological factor which is so frustrating and beguiling.
No other game requires this combination of physical, psychological and social factors to be combined so constantly during play.
Golf may have contrived by the golf gods for their merriment watching golfers’ travails and to prove what trivial creatures we are.
We can play so well one day and so poorly the next day even though we use the same eyes, muscles and keenness for the game.
“Know thy self” is an ancient and profound statement that should rightly be etched at the entrance to every golf course
Why do we keep making the same mistake over and over despite telling ourselves not to do it?
There's no other game in which we are left so desperately alone and everything depends on our individual choices and efforts.
No matter how much progress we make, even the best player in the world cannot say “I am guaranteed to play the next stroke well.”
Something in golf leads us on to think we can reach a new pinnacle of excellence, but that summit continually recedes the nearer we approach it.
In golf there seems to be a “spirit” that whispers to both the expert and novice alike that “This can be figured out.” In the end, it is that metaphysical illusion that holds sway.
Golf holds us as if in a trance, in the common and unquestioned belief that we can and will make progress.
Best of all, golf is played in the open air amid delightful scenery with the assurance of healthy exercise and pleasant companionship and when the curtain is rung down and the 18th flag is replaced, there's a dram of Scotch or perhaps just a long quiet talk on the veranda.
We should promise ourselves to start playing golf someday unarmed with clubs and carrying no balls for the express purpose of becoming part of the beauty around us and understanding that these implements are really not intrinsic to the game.
John Updike wrote the afterward to the 1986 republication of The Mystery of Golf: Golf creates in every devoted player a separate self, a golfing self who waits for him at the first tee. When he's put aside the personalities of breadwinner and lover, father and son, this release into another self surely is not the least beguilement of the mystery.
Postscript from Dr Rich: so this may me why I always ask golfers on the driving range “Have you solved the mystery yet?
If you are one of those golfers who wonders about the mysteries of your own game – especially why you are so inconsistent …. Consider talking with Dr Rich – maybe you could benefit from some mental golf insights… we can decide after a free introductory call. If you’re interested, just drop me an email at drrichgolf@gmail.com