I was propelled into golf when I was really young. It was drilled into my head that learning to play golf well was an asset that would help lead to future success as a man...you may have heard it too? ..guys who play golf were usually successful in some way etc etc.. ..the old gentlemans game thing! My mentors were partly right but not entirely..golf is ultimately a sport that should be enjoyed, golf shouldn't be something that your trying to use to network and climb career ladders with...if that happens fine!..so be it!...but...I think the main thing should be relaxation and having a good time.
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Why do I play golf?
- Thread starter IrishGolfer
- Start date
i cant agree more. besides the challenge to hit a little round ball into a 4 inch cup, being in the great outdoors could not be more enjoyable. you always think you can do better. everyone plays for that one round where absolutely everything comes together and you shoot par golf, or something close. put that with your friends and the 19th hole and it doesnt get any better than that!
WannaBeBogeyFree
Well-Known Member
- May 23, 2008
- 14
- 0
Hmmm... Why do I play golf. There a soooo many reasons.
Love self-punishment.
Driving a cart when drinking is waaay more fun than drinking watching TV.
Gets me out of the house. (Read: away from the wife!)
I get to hit things for 4 hours.
Those are just the ones that come to mind right now.
Love self-punishment.
Driving a cart when drinking is waaay more fun than drinking watching TV.
Gets me out of the house. (Read: away from the wife!)
I get to hit things for 4 hours.
Those are just the ones that come to mind right now.
- Jul 11, 2008
- 589
- 2
I play golf because it is the one sport that the average joe can play and do something that the greatest golfers in the world would be jealous of.
It is a game where no one can influence your outcome, there is no one there to block your putt from rolling in from 100ft, and you have no teammate (most of the time) to pick up your slack when you fail.
In its purest, golf is you vs. you, and no matter what you always lose.
But mostly I play golf because I learned long ago that it is the only one of the major televised sports that I can play absolutely piss drunk.
It is a game where no one can influence your outcome, there is no one there to block your putt from rolling in from 100ft, and you have no teammate (most of the time) to pick up your slack when you fail.
In its purest, golf is you vs. you, and no matter what you always lose.
But mostly I play golf because I learned long ago that it is the only one of the major televised sports that I can play absolutely piss drunk.
- Dec 22, 2007
- 2,924
- 301
The best golf has offered me is the opportunity to share a hobby with my fiancee, giving us much more time together than we had before, being able to compete one with the other due to the handicap rule and have a great time. Most sports make it difficult for two people with different skills to play against each others and make it fun. Not with golf...
golftroop
Golfaholic
- Sep 12, 2008
- 8
- 0
I agree and disagree....lol...(DISAGREE) I am a golf club junky, (I love new equipment) with todays technology, especially drivers and hybrids, it can save you shots out there....but (AGREE) all in all it comes down to putting and I cant tell you the times I have been beatin by someone with a flatstick from 1972....this game...what a love hate relationship! Overall I love it tho!
Because It's More Than A Walk In The Park
It's 4 hours with good people. It's fresh air in bucolic surroundings. It's 4 hours with my phone turned off. It's 4 hours where I will experience one or more really good shots that I can take personal pride in executing.
It's 4 hours with good people. It's fresh air in bucolic surroundings. It's 4 hours with my phone turned off. It's 4 hours where I will experience one or more really good shots that I can take personal pride in executing.
Curious > Frustration > Determination > Addiction
Curious > Frustration > Determination > Addiction
These are the phases i have gone through. Started with a perception of "old men game"... "Chasing a soccer ball in a big field is crazy enough, not to say a small little single white testicle on a BIG green pitch".... i was really curious to try out what is fun and going on with this game....
then i got frustrated when friends who started same time as me get's "better"... i want to do better... not than them, but than myself... especially i later realize some of their swings are very unorthodox and injury prone.
Determination came in... i kept improving and beating my own milestones after milestones...
of course like you and i ... addiction........
Curious > Frustration > Determination > Addiction
These are the phases i have gone through. Started with a perception of "old men game"... "Chasing a soccer ball in a big field is crazy enough, not to say a small little single white testicle on a BIG green pitch".... i was really curious to try out what is fun and going on with this game....
then i got frustrated when friends who started same time as me get's "better"... i want to do better... not than them, but than myself... especially i later realize some of their swings are very unorthodox and injury prone.
Determination came in... i kept improving and beating my own milestones after milestones...
of course like you and i ... addiction........
Boulder
The Boulder is rolling
- Jun 3, 2007
- 79
- 0
Thanks for sharing, and Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga
As I've gotten older, I can truly say that my index is getting progressively lower and for the first time approaching where it was when I was in my 20s. Obviously, technology, but also attitude and approach to the game - relaxed, getting lost in the fun of the game, enjoying the process, letting it take the lead, getting myself out of the way, and letting the score be a result.
And maybe finding a bit of what Carl Spackler (Bill Murray's character) relates in Caddyshack that the Dalai Lama must have already known ... So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
As I've gotten older, I can truly say that my index is getting progressively lower and for the first time approaching where it was when I was in my 20s. Obviously, technology, but also attitude and approach to the game - relaxed, getting lost in the fun of the game, enjoying the process, letting it take the lead, getting myself out of the way, and letting the score be a result.
And maybe finding a bit of what Carl Spackler (Bill Murray's character) relates in Caddyshack that the Dalai Lama must have already known ... So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
Boulder
The Boulder is rolling
- Jun 3, 2007
- 79
- 0
The Allure, or "The Essence", of Golf
"The Essence of Golf"
Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.
It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect.
It is at the same time rewarding and maddening.
If is without the greatest game mankind has ever invented.
"The Essence of Golf"
Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.
It satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect.
It is at the same time rewarding and maddening.
If is without the greatest game mankind has ever invented.
NiftyNiblick
Well-Known Member
- Nov 12, 2008
- 101
- 49
I know why I play.
Before I got a beginner's set of PowerBilts for my thirteenth birthday in 1959, I used to go with my Uncle Sal and pull his pull-cart for him. I loved the smell of Uncle Sal's Cadillac--part leather, part cigar smoke, and part cologne--and then I loved the ambiance of the golf course.
That's it. No Uncle Sal, no half-century of golf for me.
Thanks, Unc. It's been a while, but we'll play together again soon enough.
Before I got a beginner's set of PowerBilts for my thirteenth birthday in 1959, I used to go with my Uncle Sal and pull his pull-cart for him. I loved the smell of Uncle Sal's Cadillac--part leather, part cigar smoke, and part cologne--and then I loved the ambiance of the golf course.
That's it. No Uncle Sal, no half-century of golf for me.
Thanks, Unc. It's been a while, but we'll play together again soon enough.
Boulder
The Boulder is rolling
- Jun 3, 2007
- 79
- 0
Remembering my Powerbilts and more
The Uncle Sal story (and the great imagery in it) got me thinking about my first set of clubs, in the late 60s, a set of Powerbilt Citations. You really could hit a ball 'on the screws'. I think the ball of choice was a Spalding (maybe Wilson, maybe Dunlop) of some sort, and a Slazenger was some literally-a-bit-smaller 'uppity' foreign ball that was a bit of a novelty to find and play (but don't tell anyone you were playing one, the smaller size made you feel like you were cheating or something).
I bet Uncle Sal's trunk could fit a foursome's worth of equipment like a charm.
And my friends I were always making sure we were home on a Saturday or Sunday by 4PM Eastern time to watch 'full coverage' of the current tournament's final four holes on CBS. You couldn't wait for the leaders or your favorites to get to the 15th tee. Guys in my current foursome, almost 40 years later, still sometimes remind each other as we leave the 14th green to spruce ourselves and our games up, because the cameras will soon be on us.
And we loved it, on the original Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, when Jimmy Demaret commented that the ball lay just off the green in the 'froghair' (fringe), or that Sam Snead 'got it all' and drove it a whopping 250 yards down the middle.
Thanks for the story and the imagery. It triggered some great memories for me.
Cheers. :thumbs up:
The Uncle Sal story (and the great imagery in it) got me thinking about my first set of clubs, in the late 60s, a set of Powerbilt Citations. You really could hit a ball 'on the screws'. I think the ball of choice was a Spalding (maybe Wilson, maybe Dunlop) of some sort, and a Slazenger was some literally-a-bit-smaller 'uppity' foreign ball that was a bit of a novelty to find and play (but don't tell anyone you were playing one, the smaller size made you feel like you were cheating or something).
I bet Uncle Sal's trunk could fit a foursome's worth of equipment like a charm.
And my friends I were always making sure we were home on a Saturday or Sunday by 4PM Eastern time to watch 'full coverage' of the current tournament's final four holes on CBS. You couldn't wait for the leaders or your favorites to get to the 15th tee. Guys in my current foursome, almost 40 years later, still sometimes remind each other as we leave the 14th green to spruce ourselves and our games up, because the cameras will soon be on us.
And we loved it, on the original Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, when Jimmy Demaret commented that the ball lay just off the green in the 'froghair' (fringe), or that Sam Snead 'got it all' and drove it a whopping 250 yards down the middle.
Thanks for the story and the imagery. It triggered some great memories for me.
Cheers. :thumbs up:
NiftyNiblick
Well-Known Member
- Nov 12, 2008
- 101
- 49
Jimmy Demaret and Gene Sarazen...I loved watching those guys.
That brought back memories for me!
That brought back memories for me!
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