Essence of Golf

[GDStudio]

Hey Guys.  It has been a long time since I have checked out the board, and I think it took me even longer to go through and catch up on things.  I am glad to see my old pal Brian Phillips is still stirring things up!

Well, I didn't just post a topic to say Hi, so I will get to it.

I was being interviewed yesterday for an article and I was asked a question which stunned me, and I am not sure why.  The guy asked, "in a word, or very short sentence, what is the actual essence of golf?"  Now, as architects, builders, golfers, and enthusiast, we could all answer this question and write pages and books (and some have) on the subject.  We could go for hours and hours discussing the minut details of golf that makes it special to us, but have we really every just thought about that ONE thing?

Are we so obsessed with this game that we think we have to talk and talk about what the essence is?  Or, do we feel that it takes hours to describe what all makes golf special?

Is there really a good answer to this question?  Have we just lost what that one thing is?  Have we created thousands of excuses just to aid us in getting one more Saturday off from the wife and chores?  Are we really just full of crap?

OR....

Is there NO real answer for this question?  Is there so many things that make up the essence of golf, that we could NEVER do it justice?

I just started thinking, and thought maybe others would get a kick out of screwing the heck out of their brains for awhile.  I also thought it would be interesting to see if anyone COULD answer this question in a "WORD or SHORT SENTENCE"

good luck sleeping tonight!!!!







 

[kwl]

3 words:

1. challenge
2. comraderie
3. beauty

[Steve Lang]

 

FORE !

[RJ_Daley]

Of course it would be a different word or sentence for each individual.  I will try the "Tom Paul short sentence" (with help from the good Dr., as to what is the essence to me...


A game of pleasurable excitement played with ones skills and subject to inumerous variabilities of nature upon the limitless variety of ground.


I'll keep trying to think of a word.

[Michael Dugger]

I'll steal from Captain Thomas

"To dare a hazard to risk a reward."

[Dan Kelly]

A good walk enhanced.

[kwl]

DK

that is brilliant.

[A_Clay_Man]

In a word, the essence of golf is the same as the essence of life.

Decency

[Evan Fleisher]

How about...  F - U - N  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BCrosby]

To paraphrase Tommy Armour:

The essence of golf resides in that gap between the way you make a practice swing and the way you swing at the ball.

[JakaB]

Variety-never the same twice
A second chance-always another day, never mastered
Control-and understanding the illusion of control
Satisfaction-accomplishment, progress

unique in human endeavour

If what you say is true explain to me why you people seem so scared to play the same course for the rest of your lives.  

[Mike Hendren]

In today's world:

 

"Ball go far."

Regards,

Mike

[THuckaby2]

JakaB - it's in the first word - VARIETY - even the greatest courses would leave at least some of us looking over the fence after awhile.

That's why I gave up tennis and took up golf, oh some 30+ years ago... for the VARIETY...

So OK, I don't think one can improve on Dan Kelly's phrase, but if we are gonna put this in one word, well...

The essence of golf is its variety.

TH

[TEPaul]

The essence of golf to almost all golfers is made up of two fascinations.

1. Propelling a small ball with relatively odd impliments and actions both specific and great distances over and across various obstacles.
2. Doing #1 as accurately as possible.

[JakaB]

JakaB - it's in the first word - VARIETY - even the greatest courses would leave at least some of us looking over the fence after awhile.


The essence of golf is its variety.

Perhaps you have lived in a monoclimate for far too long...but taken to an extreme...could the 17th at TOC ever not excite as a pre-close.   Is your imagination so lacking that variety can not be found in even something so mundane as a single hole.  Or are you so wrapped up in your score you are afraid of breaking the mold in shot selection.

[THuckaby2]

JakaB - you've played with me - you know I am far from wrapped up in my score.  I'm gonna just give a   at that.  Ask Brian Gracely how wrapped up in score I am - we just played the other day and never picked up a pencil, nor had a match - we just batted the ball around and chatted - and to me that was just about as much fun as I can have.

And while variety CAN be found using imagination at any single course, any single hole - hell I don't need The Road Hole for that - to me it's just a lot more fun letting the courses do the work - that is, hitting the shots in different places.  Oh heck yeah, hitting a variety of shots is sure part of the essence of golf... but why limit one's self?  Why NOT go to other courses and hit fun shots on different terrain?

TH

[Erich Jr.]

Sheep Ranch



               

[THuckaby2]

Erich - that's a pretty damn good answer also.  Never been there myself, but from words and pictures, man I'd have to guess that THAT might be the one course I could be happy at forever.  Talk about variety... great call.

[JakaB]

Why NOT go to other courses and hit fun shots on different terrain?

TH

Because you can't see the ground game options from 250 to 50 yds in on a one time visit...and you can't feel the seasonal and truly subtle ground nuances in your first 50 visits.   I was going to continue but that may be my essence of golf.

[Erich Jr.]

I was just expanding on your answer.  Just batting the ball around and not keeping score.  Just playing for the love of the game not so you can tell your buddy how many shots you took.  

Golf should be about puring a 5 iron into the middle of the green or your put breaking perfectly on the line you picked.  Or effortlessly splashing the ball out of a bunker and having it check up.  

 

[THuckaby2]

That assumes that one WANTS to see those things.  I just want to play the game, frankly... and really have no great desire to learn those subtleties at any one course, over the time it takes to learn such.  I'm far too restless.

But I also do understand that yours is a very valid way to look at this great game, and you are very correct that those subleties and nuances do take MANY repeated playings to see... so perhaps it is the essence of the game TO YOU, and others for whom this is important.  It sure isn't to me.  Hitting the shots at many different places is the essence of the game to me, and I didn't say that before because I couldn't fit that into one word.  

TH

[THuckaby2]

I was just expanding on your answer.  Just batting the ball around and not keeping score.  Just playing for the love of the game not so you can tell your buddy how many shots you took.  

Golf should be about puring a 5 iron into the middle of the green or your put breaking perfectly on the line you picked.  Or effortlessly splashing the ball out of a bunker and having it check up.  

 

Works for me, Erich.  And thanks for the reminder of the PERFECT place for this to occur.  

[Marty Bonnar]

Essence - a distillation of:
Aperfectdriveintoapureblueskybeautifullymaintainedfairwaysandgreensafoursomewithyourbestbuddiesaweelaphroaigfromthehipflaskthearomaofafinecohibasinkingthemonsterputton18towintheskin

[RJ_Daley]

Damn if Doak didn't come up with an appropriate essence word to name his GCA enterprise:
 "Renaissance" Golf.

ren·ais·sance [ rénnə snss, rčnnə snss, ri náyss’nss ] (plural ren·ais·sanc·es) or re·nas·cence [ ri náss’nss, ri náyss’nss ] (plural re·nas·cenc·es)
 
noun  
 
rebirth: a rebirth or revival, for example, of culture, skills, or learning forgotten or previously ignored

I'd put golf in the culture, skills and learning categories...sometimes forgotten or ignored, but always renewed on the first tee.

[GDStudio]

fatbadlydrummer......

Leave it to you to get everything into ONE word!

see u on monday, and if the Scottish golf gods are keen, we'll hit a few into that blue sky.