Golf Courses and Spirituality

[Craig Disher]

It's interesting that Dornoch has been mentioned so often - and not St. Andrews.

There must be something about being on isolated links land that connects with a fundamental human instinct. The absence of machine-made noises, the steady breeze, the horizon to horizon view, the smell of the sea make me feel I've been completely absorbed by the natural world. Later in my life I discovered fly fishing and it's given me the same feelings - standing knee-deep in a cold stream listening for the slightest splash or looking for a tiny ripple in the water. Just as on a golf course, I could remain there for hours.

[JC_MERTZ]

Wow! This thread is as deep as any pot bunker. Perhaps an overview will shed the light of perspective. Consider that golf, since its conception, is rooted in the archetypes of what Jung called the collective unconsciousness of our humanity. Rich in symbolism, even the names of famous golf holes stem from our connection to the days of antiquity. The Great Architect provides the canvas for the Artist wherein the golf designer is inspired to manifest a lovely playground for us. Therein lies the mytique, for inspiration literally means "in" and "spirit"...what could be more spiritual than that? Any golf course worthy of investing an afternoon of our priceless time better have this magical influence through the designer...

[JC_MERTZ]

Oops...I left the "s" out of mystique. You'll have that when thoughts move faster than fingers!

[redanman]

Many years ago the first sight of the Shinnecock clubhouse from the sunrise highway (Before the new   proshop) at sunset was a near religous experience for this then young buck.

So was the first time I turned the dogleg of the (Now) 16th hole at Medinah #3.  Say what you want about the course, but you can't really knock this hole, the likes of which at that time I had never previously seen.

[John Foley]

Great topic Mike!

That spirituality that envelopes us and makes for a magic expreience can't be forced. It's has to come naturally. Dusk or dawn will set up your mind for a right experience. Some day go out to where ther's no lights, far from any towns and look at the stars on a clear night. Did that once on the ferry comming back from Nantucket. While not a golfing activity, looking up at that night sky was an incredibly moving exprience. I remeber that I was alone there and many times these truly spiritual moments come to us becuase we're alone.  I've got $10 that says Dan King can come up w/ a quote on that confirms this.

We all remember certain events in our life. Looking over Sand Hills as the sun went down and the shadows growing. Hearing nothing but the rattling of the windmill and the cattle in the distance. Sand Hills sure is the perfect setting for that spiritual moment.

[John Bernhardt]

We have touched upon this in different ways before. I found it when I go back to my childhood course and see the next generation of juniors learning the game. The first time to go to Pebble and stand on the first tee. Any day in ST. Andrews this connection occurs to me. I remeber one day walking up 15 and 16 litening to the bag pipe notes ride the winds across the course. Standing on 9th tee at CPC as well as 12 and 17 tees.  The balcony of my room the CPC. Watching a Dad and his 3 sons play 17 at TOC knowing it was the greatest moment of his life.

[Steve Lang]

Hey John B...

You might get a kick out of this,.. there was definitely a certain rush when I flew one over the garage and hotel on #17 at TOC back when we played there first and last time in Sept 96.. even more fun though when MS Sheila nailed the lion on the wall in the nuts with a line drive..

[ian]

Mike I loved the statement:
" "the zone" (although I've experienced it even when not playing particularly well), but I think it has something to do with wide open spaces and natural settings.  "

I had that at Pine Valley this summer, got so caught up in the place that I got a sunburn on my teeth. I remember hitting great shots and some really bad ones without a care for either. I just couldn't stop smiling and laughing. That is the zone for me, falling in love with a golf course.

The other end is every time I watch my father (who was a great player) play like he could for a short stretch, nothing in world feels more satisfying. It makes me want to pick up and watch till he again needs the distraction of my wayward game.

By the way, Religion and Golf...The Legend of Bagger Vance!

[Jason Hines]

Mike and Everyone,

This is the reason why I play, love the design and hang out on this website.  I have the similar stories as well. But, in my case I will keep them to myself to keep them spiritual and by coincidence a lot of them happened in Nebraska of all places!?!  

When this thread done and has not been touched for a couple of days, I will print it off to keep everyone's stories.

Regards,

Jason

[Philippe_Binette]

Golf is a very spiritual game obviously...

Playing 18 holes at one of Stanley Thompson masterpiece, Montebello Golf Club, Canada without seeing anybody was very, very special. Panoramas are wonderful and you feel you're alone on earth...

Every course is a spiritual place, it depends on the moment you visit it...

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Before treking into grounds that have incited holy jihads, I would like to say that I'm not a religious scholar or professor of intellect when it comes to preaching or describing the politics of religion. I'm just me.

I fear God enough to the fact that I know he loves me for better or worse, despite all of my shortcomings--there are so many; that I'm a product of his creation and he has blessed me to no end despite having some very severe flaws. I have gone beserko trying to fathom my existence to the point of exhaustion, I have gasped every living breath from my existence in hopes of finding solace for my being--and with each and everytime, God was there to guide me through this train wreck of fallow.

He was with me while I walked in from the Eden Course on a blustery late June evening with the light of the Royal and Ancient shining in the distance like a mythical shrine for all saints--a golden color not from the high pressure sodium lights that lit it, but from the countless stories just like mine that have experienced it. Yes, God was there with me.

On what was going to be the worse day of my life, and ended up being the best, he let me experience my grandfather again, some ten years after he died. It was strangely in the form of a deer on a magical stretch of sand at a beach called Spanish Bay.

He stood by me, all alone, tired and dehydrated on a hot and humid Monday in that timeless Merion sepia-toned locker room with the sunlight busting through the clouds and ancient panes of glass. Those rays shined on to the upper railings, which then casted their shadow to the bottom floor creating an errie, heavenly appeal.

Had I died and gone to heaven? Well sort of, I was in Philly.

God has enabled me to understand that I'm at my personal best; my most coherent, when I'm on a golf course in the evening hours enjoying this Game, because, and frankly, there is no better time for me to understand just how special of a gift life really is.

Many of us make it a point to go see what some of the most talented designers in the Game are creating with their God-given talents. They seek to create what inspires them the most; and they do it most of the time on blind faith, with their reputations at stake.

Yes, there is a God, and I love him. I love him with all of my heart. But most of all I know this because I have Faith, and it comes at the most definitive of times.

[Bob_Huntley]

Tommy:

I can recall no sermon with more poignancy. Come up here and guide me through the Sistine Chapel.

Bob

[Lou Duran]

Wow, Tommy, that's some heavy stuff.  I fully agree with Bob.  Next time you will have to share your gifts (of faith, coherence, and understanding) with me.

Mike C- was it an overwhelming spiritual experience which drove you to the cabins at Sand Hills for a brief respite?  I thought that something supernatural must have taken place when I saw you walking back the 1.5 miles to Ben's porch afterwards with a glow on your face (or was it just too much sun?).  My tour of the course at dawn the following day was memorable, which only made leaving after breakfast all the more painful.  Had I stayed and played 36 more with you guys, I too might have heard God's soft whisper in my ear.  Alas, I had to settle for second best- enjoying Dick Daley's stories and witicisms, and the Nebraska countryside for the rest of the day.  Perhaps at Pasatiempo or Pajaro in March, if a little of the Emperor's faith rubs off, I too will have an spiritual experience of sorts (and maybe the round of my life).  

[Mike_Cirba]

Tommy;

God bless you.  If ever my time spent writing on here was well spent, it was when I started this thread simply because of your response.

Lou;

As you know, I had a scary moment at Sand Hills because I seriously underestimated the lack of hydration in that dry, windy Nebraska weather.  Walking my 28th hole of the day, the lights went out, so to speak, and thankfully Dick Daley came to the rescue in a cart.  Let's just say that I learned a new respect for Ken Venturi at Congressional.  

A few hours later, sitting in the cabins after a cold shower, it was just killing me that you guys were still out there on the course in the fading sunlight.  So, I decided to test my sea legs, and before I knew it, I was striding purposefully towards Ben's porch, hoping to join you all for a nightcap and to watch the sunset over God's country.

As it turned out, that might have been the easiest walk I've ever taken.  I was almost at a run pace for the last 1/3 mile.  

Sand Hills is quite obviously one of those very special spiritual places, and I've scratched my head wondering what other place would have inspired such a quick recovery of the body and soul.  

[ForkaB]

When I was young, I played golf about as often as I went to church, which was very seldom (1-2 times a year in each case).  I don't know on which course it was, or even in which State it was it had to be Connecticut or Massachusetts) but I remember clear as a bell one of those infrequent rounds when I was walking barefoot in the late afternoon of a hot summer day, carrying probably 7-8 of the cut-off hickory shafted clubs that I was given by my grandfather, and I can still feel the sensations of my bare feet walking over that warm and firm ground.

As in the interim I have significantly increased my golfing time and decreased my churching time, I'm not sure if I would be qualified (or even wish) to call this "spiritual," but it very probably fits the definition.

Fortunately, there have been many, many more of such moments for me.  Such is golf.  Such is life.

[Guest]

You want spirituality on a golf course?  Go to Friar’s Head.

Before first seeing it, Ken Bakst once told me that the property had more spirit and soul than almost any other he had ever been on.  And he wasn’t talking about the quality of the golf course or the merits of its design.  I honestly thought he had lost his marbles until I went and played it.  He was right!

I won’t go into how amazing this golf course is, because that’s not the point of this thread, but the golf course takes you on a blissful journey through an amazing piece of property that you will never forget.  Not one inch of it!  

 I just can’t imagine anybody playing Friar’s Head without having some sort of spiritual experience, unless of course they are lacking a soul.  

[Forrest Richardson]

Mike -- Thanks for beginning this discussion. It has been interesting to read through the many experiences and descriptions of feelings.

It is enlightening, isn't it, that almost all of the stories related have to do with people, weather, ambience, nerves, etc.? As I read through the discussion it brings light to the fact that the golf course itself -- what we usually talk about -- is but a mere surface on which we paint our canvasses. And our finished paintings -- our experiences -- are so much more than the texture of the land.

[A.G._Crockett]

Mike C.
God bless you for starting this thread...

Tommy N.
God bless you for writing that...

[golflaw]

Greetings -
              What a wonderful and very appropriate topic to discuss on this board. In order to fully appreciate what a golf architect has in mind, one must allow the senses to go free and act as a sponge to soak in what the architect was attempting to paint on the magnificent canvas he was already given to work with. When he succeeds, the awe that he brings out in us also brings out the best of our playing ability without sometimes even knowing it, what we might even call playing "unconsciensly". We begin to be overwhelmed with a feeling of being connected with every fiber of our bodies to the world around us, and the glimpses and awareness of an orderly, master plan that we begin to understand that we play an important part in is moving beyond words, lifting us to the heights that all of you have beautifully described. The sense of connection, the sense of peace, the sense of grandeur, the sense of awe, the sense of our place in the universe, the sense of how maginificently our family and friends fit into all of the above - that is why I play golf. For whatever reason, golf has the ability, for certain people, to bring our spiritulality into intense focus. My guess is, the kind of people that feel so connected to this discussion group. Thank you for such an uplifting discussion!