Mike - the only thing I'd say is that competition comes in many forms. I'm an average golfer at best, but I like to keep score and I like to compete with friends when I get a chance. Now, I can hit some good shots every once in a while, and have no trouble (relatively speaking) playing an aerial game. But besides not being all that talented, I also don't practice, and so those shots from 60-70 yards in, those half wedges, those pitches that need to bounce and stop, all those kind of finesse aerial shots, I'm not very good at; and I've found time and again that, aiming to shoot the best score I can means that I need to use the ground game -- a six or seven iron from 60 yards out that I bump in real low and watch run up and on, for example. It is a kind of shot that for some reason I find easier than its aerial equivalent, even for a hack like me who doesn't practice. I don't have to use it, but I've halved or won many a hole because I played it while my opponent thinned a sand wedge or hit a pitch shot fat or had a 60 degree shot get blown around by the wind. There's still a place in golf, for average golfers who want to compete, to use the ground game.
Peter