THE SOUL OF GOLF

[Charlie Goerges]

The following paragraph (the first paragraph of chapter 1) in the book The Soul of Golf by P. A. Vaile caught my attention. Normally we think of Golf as a good metaphor for life, one that teaches useful skills for life and that reflects many of the ups and downs and real happenings in life. Perhaps this is not so.

What say you?

NEARLY every one who writes about a game essays to prove that it is similar to "the great game, the game of life." Golf has not escaped; and numberless scribes in endeavouring to account for the fascination of golf have used the old threadbare tale. As a matter of fact, golf is about as unlike the game of life as any game could well be. As played now it has come to be almost an exact science, and everybody knows exactly what one is trying to do. This would not be mistaken for a description of the game of life. In that game a man may be hopelessly "off the line," buried "in the rough," or badly "bunkered," and nobody be the wiser. It is not so in golf. There is no double life here. All is open, and every one knows what the player is striving for. The least deflection from his line, and the onlooker knows he did not mean it. It is seen instantly. In that other game it may remain unseen for years, for ever.

[Garland Bayley]

In some ways, golf is like life.
In other ways, golf is not like life.
DUH!

Let those that wish try to prove what they wish, but none of their "proofs" remotely approach the rigor of mathematics.

[RSLivingston_III]

What year was this book written?

[Charlie Goerges]

Published in 1912, I don't know if that is the first edition or not.

[Rick Shefchik]

If golf has become "almost an exact science," I've missed all the classes.

It is precisely because golf is played outside, on a multitude of courses that all change with the weather and the seasons, that golf is less like an exact science than any other sport played on a regulation field or court. Unpredictable bounces are the soul of golf. And life, for that matter.

[Anthony Gray]

  What other sport can immitate life more than golf?

  Anthony

[Eric Smith]

  What other sport can immitate life more than golf?

  Anthony

Ping Pong?

Back and forth, home and work

[Anthony Gray]

  What other sport can immitate life more than golf?

  Anthony

Ping Pong?

Back and forth, home and work

  That is a bunch of pipicaca.

[Tom_Doak]

Charlie:

Interesting, I've never seen that book elsewhere.

I like the paragraph you cited, but to me that paragraph says a lot about life, and very little about golf.  If the whole book is that way it would explain my surprise above.

[Charlie Goerges]

Obviously there is no right and complete answer to the question, but exploration of it may yield benefits for golf course architecture.

A thought that occurs to me is that while life is not fair, we generally endeavor to make it more fair than it is. I think that's a good thing.

In the last 50-100 years, golf courses have been (generally speaking) getting more fair as well. This is believed by some to be a good thing and by some to be a bad thing.

If we leave out Vaile's comment about golf being an exact science (I believe it to be a poor choice of words) we are left with the idea that golf is "lived" in the open by the player. There are no secrets, no outward shows of dominance (no buying fancy houses with no money in the bank, no driving cars that one really can't afford etc.)

Additionally it might be said that the concept of far-reaching consequences does not apply. One takes one's punishment and then moves on, this is rarely the case in life. In golf one can't buy insurance or hoard a bunch of money in the bank (though in stroke play one can come close by building up a large lead...).

So perhaps golf, and our enjoyment thereof, would benefit by not thinking of it as "similar to..the game of life".

I think the difference is that the "unfairness" we dislike in life is the head start that some get and the bad hand others get, while the "bad bounces" are really just a part of life. In golf, you don't get a head start or bad hand, and so the bad bounces have a much more even effect. By worrying less about fairness, the lowliest person can be buoyed by the fact that the station of life into which he was born will not prevent him from great success and happiness at the game of golf, and that good luck and bad luck will fall upon him and everyone else who plays the game in unmeasured and unaccounable ways. By the same token the most priveledged person will know that he can be laid low at any moment (as can his opponents) and there is nothing that he can do about it but forge ahead.

[Garland Bayley]

...

In the last 50-100 years, golf courses have been (generally speaking) getting more fair as well. This is believed by some to be a good thing and by some to be a bad thing.
...

        

Fair for whom? The tour pro? That makes them less fair for the remaining 99.999999%

[Charlie Goerges]

Charlie:

Interesting, I've never seen that book elsewhere.

I like the paragraph you cited, but to me that paragraph says a lot about life, and very little about golf.  If the whole book is that way it would explain my surprise above.

Actually, the book is basically golf swing instruction. Which to me makes the title a really weird choice. I haven't read more than a few snippets of the book, but that first paragraph struck me in how different it was from what I've usually read on the subject.

[Adam_F_Collins]

I like this passage, as it has long annoyed me that so much of the writing about golf is somehow 'religious', or metaphoric. I really don't need it to be. I'd like to just read about golf itself and the joy it brings for what it is - not so much what it compares to. It certainly causes some soul-searching, but it does so for real, golf-centric reasons.

It doesn't need to be related to the almighty for me.

[Charlie Goerges]

...

In the last 50-100 years, golf courses have been (generally speaking) getting more fair as well. This is believed by some to be a good thing and by some to be a bad thing.
...

        

Fair for whom? The tour pro? That makes them less fair for the remaining 99.999999%

Garland, here is the definition of fairness I'm working with in terms of courses "without irregularity or unevenness". I equate it with certainty of outcome more so than a good outcome. I'll agree that it is not a perfect way of looking at it. Rather than perfectly develop my thoughts, I thought I'd just get some talking points out there.

Whether the courses have gotten more fair or not, they definitely reward a certain type of execution more than others (to their detriment in my opinion). So my point was that thinking of golf as like life might not be a good thing because maybe it's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

[Garland Bayley]

Garland, here is the definition of fairness I'm working with in terms of courses "without irregularity or unevenness".

Ohhhhhhhhh! Your mean borinnnnnngggggggggggg. Who'd a thunk!
 

Insert interchangeable TEP lecture on Max Behr and the evils of fairness below.

[Jim_Kennedy]

So perhaps golf, and our enjoyment thereof, would benefit by not thinking of it as "similar to..the game of life".-Charlie Georges

Charlie,
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentence. Golf has nothing to do with life and why the hell would anyone want a game they play to imitate or mirror the life they live? The golf course is a place to escape our day to day existence, good or bad.

Recreation is supposed to be about replenishment of the spirit.

[Anthony Gray]

  Do people approach golf the same way they approach life?

  Anthony

[George Pazin]

They say the Eskimos have many many words for snow.

I wish golf had no words for fairness, outside of the rules.

[Forrest Richardson]

For those interested:

http://www.archive.org/stream/soulofgolf00vailrich#page/n9/mode/2up

The book sells for $100-$300 depending on condition. The archive copy is cheaper. 

[Dan Herrmann]

They say the Eskimos have many many words for snow.

I wish golf had no words for fairness, outside of the rules.

1-4. Points Not Covered by Rules
If any point in dispute is not covered by the Rules, the decision should be made in accordance with equity. 

[Charlie Goerges]

A lot of interesting thoughts! I always assumed nearly everyone subscribed to at least a watered-down version of the "golf is like life" thesis. Adam, Jim, Garland(?) clearly show that to be false. I don't think I'm completely sold on the notion one way or the other yet. But some real worthwhile points.

I think how the game is viewed can/will/does affect the architecture. Are there any ideas folks have in this area?


Forrest, that is the way I found the book (though I found a PDF on google books). If it wasn't for that type of service, I'd never see a book like this.

[Gary Slatter]

Golf is for life, or until you can't drive that creek anymore.

I can't think of any game more like life than golf.  Maybe cricket cause it's so hard to understand, like life.

Some people are born with golf talent, some are born in Haiti. 
How many potentially great golfers have never touched a club?
It isn't supposed to be fair (life? or golf?)

[Peter Pallotta]

Charlie - what surprised me is that, even as early as 1912, the numberless scribes had already made the golf-as-life narrative a mocked and threadbare one.  (He obviously had no idea of how numberless the numberless would become.)  I hadn't thought death had undone so many...

On the actual quote, I think the problem is that Mr. Vaile (or should that be...Mr. VEIL!) is himself trying to access the golf-as-life motif, but he's doing it through the back-door, and is ham-fisted and clunky about it to boot.

But sure, does golf require attention and patience and perserverence, especially in the face of adversity? Yeah. Are are golf courses (amongst all fields of play) the most like the blank canvas upon which we project our hopes and fears and upon which we paint the story of our personal successes (hurray, a birdie!) and failures (ah man, mark me down for an 8 ).  I guess...

Hey, maybe one of the reasons people like natural or minimal architecture is that it leaves more room for our projections!

Peter

[Melvyn Morrow]

Gary you said “Golf is for life, or until you can't drive that creek anymore”. However, I feel that there is more to it than that.

What about the interest in the architecture of the course, track, field etc., etc. What other sport spends as much time discussing and proving who did what and when to the courses. Tennis, Cricket, Football (all types), base/basket ball, rugby, athletics track/field, Horse racing, fishing river/sea, the list goes on, but none of these sports care who designed their field of play or course. Why, well that is simple, they are all standards and like the Hilton worldwide they offer the same interesting or boring appearance depending upon your viewpoint. However, Golf is different. Our courses are designed (and thoughtout for the most parts) to challenge the golfer while getting the best out of the location, totally unlike the other 99% of sports.

The Clubs/Courses or golfers that show no interest in the GCA or history of the game are missing out totally on the complete experience. What other sport actually offer you the opportunity to PLAY some of its original grounds, to experience the courses where our past heroes has played and been able to follow more or less in their footsteps?  Golf is nearly unique it can offer far more to the older player than again most other sports. The Game of Golf does not stop when you cannot drive that creek anymore. I cannot play due to my back problem, possible an operation may allow me back on the course, but you do not see me putting down the mantel, in fact you see me fighting even more for golf (well for cart-less golf ).

There are other activities still closely associated with golf from the history of the game (either in your country or Scotland), through to finding lost or closed courses and perhaps even seeing if some can be re-constituted back into a course. Therefore, it may not give you the thrill of hitting that ace shot on the course, but it does give more that just satisfaction to uncover that MR X or Mr Y was involved within the design process and even more when you find a site of a long lost and closed course. In fact, I would go as far as to say it generates a tremendous thrill when you suddenly realise that Old Tom or Fernie, Dunn, Campbell or Braid had once walked this land and had produced a golf course here.

Sorry, Gary but there is still life in golf well after you have driven your last ball IMHO. Is that not the real Soul of Golf?

Melvyn

[Anthony Gray]

 I've been to Hollywood. I've been to Redwood. I crossed the ocean for the soul of golf. I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line that keeps me searching for the soul of golf. And I'm getting old.

  Anthony