Maggie's Farm

Dear Barrister,

If you "already have more than enough hobbies and chores" then you should seriously consider taking up golf. Your life is way too complicated.

To a "golfer" the game is a self examination. You play against yourself. You are the judge. Those dilettantes who blame a bad lie or weather or the greenskeeper or the phase of the moon are rightfully disdained as just not getting it.

Throughout a golfer's life, from duffer to accomplished, you live for the very few shots each round that bring oohs and ahs - from yourself. After a while you realize that, in the words of Bobby Jones, "golf is a game played in the five inch space between the ears". Mr. Eldrick Woods, known to a few close friends as "Tiger", has said that he hits maybe two perfect shots in a tournament.

Golf is a gentleman's game. Etiquette is the essence of golf. The very first entry in the Rules of Golf is devoted to etiquette. We see a number of times each year where professional golfers call penalties on themselves. Infractions that nobody else sees. Maybe $50,000 penalties. Amateur cheaters are lonely.

Golf is a window into a man's character. Everybody, even the first time player, occasionally makes a stroke that's just as good as the professional. Nature of the game. How does a man handle a bad stroke? Window. Responsibility or excuse?

I usually go to a golf course by myself and "hook up" with other players. I have played with probably more than two thousand people over the years. Four plus hours with total strangers. Gaspoles in any crowd but, on balance, a cut above the crowd.

Regards,
Roy