Jim
That "dirty little secret" has always been part and parcel of the game of golf, but you say it best. "You can't buy any serious amount of game, period" should be put in bold lettering over the door of every PGA shop in the world. Yeah, like that's going to happen.......
The other dirty little secret that Jeff's post highlights is the persistent myth that we can play the same game as the pros. Sure, we can stand on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach just like Omar Uresti, and face the same shot he has faced many times before, and even perhaps hit a shot with a result as good or better than some of the shots he has hit from the same spot before. BUT..................We are kidding ourselves if we think we are playing anything close to the game Omar does and can play. The physics of the golf swing (which allows our swing speeds to be relatively close (compared to our baseball swings, for example) to those of the pros) and the scoring system of the game flatter us. We geezers do not have any more relative ability in golf than we do in tennis or baseball or even bowling. That false flattery, however, is one of the enduring charms of our game.