Golf Is A Beautiful Game

If you had to pick one or two words to describe the game of golf what would it be or what would they be? I know it can depend upon many things, such as how you played on a particular day or whether you are a middling golfer like me, a high handicapper or one of those guys who routinely shoots in the 70s or how you generally look at life.

As you might imagine, the list of descriptive words is long, including:

• "Golf is a fascinating It has taken me nearly 40 years to discover that I can't play it." – British golfer Ted Ray, who won The Open in 1912 and the U.S. Open in 1920
• “Golf is deceptively simple an endlessly and complicated.” – 7-time Major winner Arnold Palmer
• “Golf … I came to regard as a holy exercise.” – British-born American journalist Alistair Cooke
• “Golf is the most straightforward, honest competition in the world.” – Deane Beman, who was a professional golfer and PGA Commissioner from 1974 to 1994
• “This game (golf) is so elusive.  You try to maintain the peaks and level up the valleys.” 8-time Major winner Tom Watson
• “Golf is like a grindstone: whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you’re made of.”  -- English saying
• “Golf is a puzzle without an answer.” – 9-time Major winner Gary Player

Of course, golf is all of those things – and more. Personally, I am going with the word beautiful.  It is one of those words that triggers the imagination and can be used in so many ways: 

• “I never get tired of watching Fred Couples swing a club. It’s a beautiful sight.”
• “The beautiful thing about golf is that it taps into so many emotions.”
• “This course so beautiful that even my bad shots don’t bother me.”
• “It is a beautiful spring day – blue sky, gentle breeze, 70 degrees – just perfect for golf.”
• “Just beautiful! Another missed four-foot putt.”
• “When I saw my ball in the middle of the fairway on the first hole – so beautiful – I knew it was my day.”
• “A lot of what is most beautiful about golf arises from the struggle to find consistency.”
• “That’s a beautiful sight. The money is coming my way today.”

What word/words you would use when describing the world’s greatest game? Fun? Challenging? Maddening? Calming? Seductive? Bewitching? Unpredictable?

Play Away!

Allan Stark