Golf Soul

[Tom Huckaby]

I've used the term many times in here.  It's clear to me what it means.  But it's also become clear to me that my understanding of it is likely not shared by others; and the importance I place upon it likely isn't as well.

By golf soul, I mean that part of the golfer that is stirred on an emotional and spiritual level.  For me this can happen at the oddest of places, but generally, it occurs at very great courses or with very great people.

No offense to my friend Rich Goodale, but I think he understands it differently if he says my descriptions of my shaking knees on 16 CPC is the very definition of eye candy.  No, my knees don't shake on that tee because of the view - although that is surely a part of it.  And the knees aren't shaking out of FEAR - not at all.  They are shaking because it becomes difficult for me to handle the magnitude of it all:  the greats that have stood before me on that tee, the difficulty of the shot I am about to face, the golf immortality one would achieve if one was to somehow make an ace there, the explanations one has to give one's buddies at home if he dumps one in the ocean, the fact one's seen the hole countless times in pictures and then there it is spread out in front of one.... It all rolls up into a very stirring experience on a pretty deep emotional and yes spiritual level.

Or at least it does for me.  

As I say, this can occur at many places, many not nearly as famous as Cypress Point.  It surely occurred to me at Sand Hills... they don't call the late afternoon solo front nine jaunt the "church nine" for nothing...it occurred all over the the UK and Ireland...  but it's also occurred at Santa Teresa, which no one would ever call great.  It can happen in many ways.

And to me, this stirring of the golf soul is really what the game is all about.

Does it exist for the rest of you?  Is it important?

TH

[Michael Moore]

I believe that your soul is what you leave behind on Earth for other people.

Is it hoped that I will be remembered for more than hitting a ball with a stick . . .

[John Goodman]

Yes and yes.

It occurs repeatedly any time I am on a golf trip with buddies, without regard to where.

GB&I courses (and other GB&I golf-related experiences) for me reek of it.  Especially the links.

I have occasionally, though not frequently, felt it while playing alone.

Almost any time I play with my dad I get a whiff of it.  Playing with my dad over eight days in Scotland practically suffocated me with it.

It is hard to define - part excitement, part nostalgia, part an undifferentiated feeling that you are doing (or about to do) something that you've always wanted to do, and should be doing.

Wodehouse, old photographs of great courses and Darwin are all golf soul stimulators.

[Tom Huckaby]

I believe that your soul is what you leave behind on Earth for other people.

Is it hoped that I will be remembered for more than hitting a ball with a stick . . .

Michael:

I couldn't agree more.
That's why I called it "golf soul" and not just "soul." Hopefully you can understand the difference.

John:

Seems like you and I see this the same - and it is difficult to define.... but your examples resonate with me, that's for sure.

TH

[Jordan Wall]

Huck,

Yes, I agree.
I know that the first tee at Kapalua may not be like CPC 16, but for me it was something special.

I know the day I play CPC I will have the same feeling.

And yes Huck, that is what it is all about.
When you get chills before you hit a shot, before you get to a hole, or even a course, that is the golfing soul.
And that is what it is all about.

JW

[Bob_Huntley]

Michael,

Tom made no reference to hitting a golf ball with a stick but made the observation that in certain circumstances, perhaps in the confines of a beautiful or magical place, HIS soul was moved.

I know that mine was, when visiting the  Vietnam Memorial Wall.

Bob  

[RJ_Daley]

As I say, this can occur at many places, many not nearly as famous as Cypress Point.  It surely occurred to me at Sand Hills... they don't call the late afternoon solo front nine jaunt the "church nine" for nothing...it occurred all over the the UK and Ireland...  but it's also occurred at Santa Teresa, which no one would ever call great.  It can happen in many ways.

And to me, this stirring of the golf soul is really what the game is all about.

Huck, in the above explanation of golf soul I am in complete accord with you.  One doesn't need to be standing on the tee at 16 CPC to have soul.  One doesn't need to be standing on 17 SHGC with a 5 iron into a stiff wind with the glorious finish of 18 and the modest 'porch' just in sight up the draw beyond.  One doesn't need to be in the playing company of Sir Boab, Tommy N., Steve the Marine, or America's Guest to feel it.  One doesn't need the rush of the first tee and realizing the invitation to experience the newest and destined to be among the very best in the middle of chop hills, CO.  But, all those ancillary factors are additive.

When one reaches out with gusto to embrace whatever nature has thrown at you to get out there and take in a great golf setting (like a 40MPH-35* desolate venue of a Sutton Bay) and decide that 36 is a good number to play as the companions howl with delight and gusto, such  similarly motivated friends participate in a comunion of soul. To play that extra loop at WH in similarly vigorous conditions when others give up to the elements - because to play the great course is just so  pure and stimulating, that is the soul of golf.  

And, to be playing up a fall fairway at your underappreciated home venue, with the maple and oak leaves at peak glorious colors of orange, red, maroon, yellows, framing the fall induced firm and fast fairways and greens; greedily drinking it in and desparately knowing this spells the near end of a season and one more page of life turned, hoping you'll return alive the next season, well... that is golf soul.  

Not to be immodest about having soul, but like James Brown, I know I got it, I know many of my friends have it.  I saw it in their eyes.  

[Tom Huckaby]

This is all great stuff.

RJD:  Man you nailed this - or at least you see this as I do - I kinda figured you'd be that way though.  You are one golf soul-ful dude, as the efforts you go to get back to Wild Horse proves.  And man that is one soul-stirring place as well... especially when played with fine companions as I've been lucky enough to do both times I've been there.

Bob gives a great example as well - my soul too was stirred viewing the Vietnam War Memorial.  This isn't meant to be exclusive - of course the soul can be stirred in many ways.  Heck I've had it happen at the Opera, which has to be a surprise to those who know me.  

My point - or my question, I should say - is if this occurs via the game consisting of a ball hitting a stick.  A very valid position would be that such game shouldn't be so important that soul-stirring occurs.  I would never call anyone who feels that way "wrong."  I would just say that I look at it differently... this game has led to soul-stirring for me, and given I'm not a very competitive player any more (if I ever was) is the real reason I continue to play.

TH

[PjW]

Tom:

I could not agree with more on the 'soul' of the experience.  For me it happens during the construction, where you take an architects vision and put your touch on it to meld it into the experience.  This happens most frequently in the final shaping or just after grassing with the first irrigation.  It can be especially a great experience at sunrise or sunset with the shadows exagerated.  Golf is not just about the game for me but the creation.

Hows that for some heavy lifting!

Phil

[Tom Huckaby]

Phil:

WHOA!  That is some heavy lifting... and man I surely didn't think of this in that light at all, being simply a player of the game.  That must be incredible... likely one of the main reasons why you get into the business, no?

TH

[Tom Huckaby]

shivas:  very cool.  But what about certain 17th holes while wearing certain yellow cardigans?

 

[PjW]

Exactly

[Kirk Gill]

My point - or my question, I should say - is if this occurs via the game consisting of a ball hitting a stick.  A very valid position would be that such game shouldn't be so important that soul-stirring occurs.

There's a lot of directions to point your life in this world. More for some than others. There are a lot of people who never have much of a chance to play games of any kind, either by choice or because of the circumstances of their birth and their upbringing, where they live, etc. On the other end of the spectrum are those people for whom a game becomes their life, either professionally or just because that's where their passion lies. It seems to me that if those folks in that lucky position were to have their souls stirred, it might be their favorite game that would do it.

We can't dismiss that soul-stirring as being somehow a lesser variety than the kind prompted by something that we're told is a nobler venture. Is the "thing" or "place" that stirs the soul really all that important? I don't think so. It's the fact that the soul is, in fact, stirred; it's that connection to something greater than ourselves that matters.

I like, Mr. Daley, how you mention the soul-stirring power of your own unappreciated local golf course. I'd hate to think that my "golf soul" can't be stirred without having access to Cypress Point. If that's the case I might as well end it all now, eh?

[Lou_Duran]

Bob Huntley,

I had a similar experience finding the name of a high school classmate's brother on the wall.  Jim Gase, proudly dressed in his Marine uniform, visited our very small rural school around 1969 just prior to shipping out.  He took me to the side and told me that he thought the Marines would be perfect for me after graduation.  Just a few months later, he was hit by shrapnel while guarding a hospital and bled out during the course of the attack.  I am not given to sentimentality or visible melancholy, but the memorial just opened up emotions I did not know existed.

Thomas,

Can one hold that there is such a thing as a soul without a belief in God?  I remember having a conversation with a scientist once who claimed to be both spiritual and an aetheist.  My conclusion was that this chap confused spirituality with those things emotive in nature that can't be readily explained with logic and/or science.

My two cents worth: just like we confuse strategy with tactics here on a fairly regular basis, we may be mislabeling what might be little more than an emotional response of happiness or euphoria.  I've had my share of "magical" moments on the course, but none that have risen to the level of a religious experience.  Here is hoping that we all do some day.      

[Tom Huckaby]

Kirk:

Those are very good reminders - well said.

Just do understand that I too - like my friend Dick Daley - experience this soul-stirring at my local course Santa Teresa, mentioned in my first post here.  It's a pretty basic muni.  

So I absolutely love how you've summed this up:


We can't dismiss that soul-stirring as being somehow a lesser variety than the kind prompted by something that we're told is a nobler venture. Is the "thing" or "place" that stirs the soul really all that important? I don't think so. It's the fact that the soul is, in fact, stirred; it's that connection to something greater than ourselves that matters.


Man I wish I could write like that.  That is exceedingly well said.  That's what I meant by all of this.

TH

[Tom Huckaby]

Lou:

Those are great questions.  Taking this to the spiritual level is where it becomes problematic indeed.  I can certainly understand if one either can't, or hasn't, had this occur.  Maybe it's crazy.  And the concept of "god" can be taken so many different ways also....

I just like how Kirk just phrased it:  tapping into something greater than ourselves.  That does occur for me playing this game... And it seems it happens for others as well.  I just was really wondering if I was even more of a weirdo than I already am... this has been rather affirming.

 

[RJ_Daley]

For me, the golf soul arises occurs on any course, any place when the shot I'm about to hit is super challenging and basically an idiot shot - a Seve shot.  That can happen at the Jans or 16 at CPC and anywhere in between.  I occasionally get goose bumps when the shot is idiotic enough...but I think it's do-able.

Dave, I shudder at how I can relate to those words.  

The golf soul is complex, and expresses itself in many ways and at many times, in different people.  I like the expression of the golf soul that Phil Wycoff explains, realizing that we as golfers are the beneficiaries of the golf souls of great architects and constructors.

We are nurtured by the golf souls of great golf writers and commentators who use all the right words to convey that state of the golf soul.  And, we are even entertained by the golf souls of great actors, who like Jack Lemmon portrayed and interpretted the golf soul he must have undoubtably himself possessed in real life, in his character portrayal in "Bagger Vance".

But, that business of yours, Dave... going after the low percentage shot... the one you may pull off one in a 10 times of trying in the pursuit of that rare thrill of nailing it - that is the part of the unchasten soul, which I also possess and why I can't break 80 on a good course full of such thrill shot opportunities.

[Aaron Katz]

Last week I was playing on a beautiful afternoon -- 65 degrees, sun shining, fall foliage.  When we were getting close to twighlight, a storm cloud moved in real fast from the east and was sitting right on top of us.  The sun was about an hour from setting in the west and was unobscured by the cloud.  On the 13th hole, very slightly uphill par four with two lacy edged, staggered fairway bunkers as targets and a blind landing area, we were hitting straight into the sun.  The shadows that were casting across the fairway made the bunkers look like living creatures.  With all the oranges and reds in the trees, it was a very cool moment.  Then, all of the sudden, the storm cloud let out the finest rain drops I've ever seen.  It was literally like a mister.  The water evaporated before it hit the ground.  The light coming through the mist created a prism effect.  I just stood there on the tee soaking it in before I hit.  I then hit a stinger with a two iron, hoping it would draw off the right hand bunker.  I couldn't see a thing because of the sun, but I knew it felt like a low draw.  I definitely counted myself lucky to be living in such a beautiful moment, and I found my ball in the middle of the fairway a couple minutes later.

[RJ_Daley]

Fine thoughts Kirk, Lou and Aaron...

Kirk, my Dad was Mr. Daley...

Huck, congrats on starting the annual group therapy, "catharsis thread".  GCA.com needs one every so often...

Com'on lads, get it all out now...

[ForkaB]

I think we are confusing soul with emotion.  The latter is real, the former is just a vague concept which means a very different thing to James Brown than to St. Thomas Aquinas or even CB MacDonald........

We all feel emotion at a great beauty spot like the 16th tee at Cypress, but to even put it in the same sentence as the Vietnam War Memorial is to do a disservice to both.  One demonstrates the recurring beauties of life, the other evokes the finality of the ephemerality of the same.

[Bob_Huntley]

Can one hold that there is such a thing as a soul without a belief in God?  
   

Lou,

I most certainly do.

If you have the chance, do read Heather MacDonald's piece in The American Conservative, August 28th Issue.

A brilliant essay that may well unleash the ire of millions.

Bob

[Tom Huckaby]

Rich:

Perhaps it is a poor choice of words, as "soul" can certainly mean more than what I intend here.  "Emotion" might be a better way to put it.  But I also think my meaning here goes far beyond than what you are seeing...

Please understand that I am certainly not trying to equate the deep meaning of what one feels at the Vietnam Memorial with what one feels on a golf course.  And you said it VERY well when you described the differences.

But shivas' question is a good one too - this isn't about "the soul" but about a certain "golf soul" that I am struggling to define.

But since you again refer to the "beauty" of 16 Cypress, I just have to wonder if we're talking about the same thing here though.  Again, beauty is just a part of it.  Let me reiterate from my first post:


No offense to my friend Rich Goodale, but I think he understands it differently if he says my descriptions of my shaking knees on 16 CPC is the very definition of eye candy.  No, my knees don't shake on that tee because of the view - although that is surely a part of it.  And the knees aren't shaking out of FEAR - not at all.  They are shaking because it becomes difficult for me to handle the magnitude of it all:  the greats that have stood before me on that tee, the difficulty of the shot I am about to face, the golf immortality one would achieve if one was to somehow make an ace there, the explanations one has to give one's buddies at home if he dumps one in the ocean, the fact one's seen the hole countless times in pictures and then there it is spread out in front of one.... It all rolls up into a very stirring experience on a pretty deep emotional and yes spiritual level.


Odd to quote one's self, yes, but I just have to wonder if you read that if you refer to the beauty alone at CPC.  It goes way beyond that.  It's a stirring on a very deep level, and as further described, it happens many other places and in many other ways playing this game.

I call it "golf soul."  But I continue to like the way Kirk phrased it - connecting to something greater than ourselves.  To me that goes beyond simple "emotion."  And yes it does occur via this great game.

Perhaps this explains it better?

TH

[John Kavanaugh]

Have any of you ever cried on the golf course..

[Tom Huckaby]

JK:

Please.  Hell I cry when I see the Tiger Woods as a little kid magically playing The Old Course Nike commercial.  I cry damn near every week watching Extreme Home Makeover.  Cry on a golf course?  Well, thankfully it's only when no one is watching.  But let's just say it's lucky the fellows on the porch didn't have THAT strong binoculars trained on me during my Church nine.

TH

[Lou_Duran]

JK,

Cry on the course?  For sure.  Twice.  At Ben's Porch paying- off Tom "poor me, I can't play worth a beep, oops, I just shot 75" Huckaby, and after the same bad actor closed me out at the KPIV prematurely (but prior to "Ace" McBride earning his moniker which made me smile despite the hurt just put on me).