[Jim Franklin]

I just wanted to poll our group to understand why you play. I have played with a variety of golfers from this site, some really good, some not as good, and have enjoyed playing with every one of them. Why do we play?

[Michael Moore]

So I can mash the ball off the sweet spot.

[Dan Kelly]

To forget everything else.

(Oh, and for many other reasons -- but I'm playing this afternoon, so I'm trying to get my mind pre-cleared this morning.)

[Cory Lewis]

exercise, challenge, something new and different every time, being outside, meeting new people.  That's all I can think of right now.  

[Pat Brockwell]

It's not the money. I play for fame and glory.

[Tom Huckaby]

Put me down with Pat - when I read the Topic line, first thing I thought of was "for the glory."

My other answer is "why not?"

Seriously Jim, this is a really tough question, at least for me, who's devoted large parts of my focus and energy to this game for 35 years now.  I haven't stopped to wonder why for a long long time, if ever.  And I fear if I do think about this too much, it's going to depress me.  So I am bowing out of this thread.

 

[Mike_Cirba]

A large eastern conglomerate pays me to be their spokesperson.  





(just providing something sufficiently tabloidish for Kavanaugh to waste his time researching)  

Actually...

The current "Feature Interview" here with Bill Yates is virtually identical to my own story, albeit at a different scruffy nine-holer with a largely dirt, worn to dust teeing ground;

"I clearly remember the first hole I ever played.  It was on a hilly 9-hole course near Pittsburgh called Coraopolis Heights Golf Course.  The green fees were probably $1.50 and I believe it had rubber mat tees.  The first hole played from the top of a hill, down and across a small stream and back up another steep hill to a green perched on top.  I don’t recall that the “fairway” was cut any shorter than the rough or that there were any bunkers, but I do remember walking on to a real green for the first time.  I could not believe that grass could be grown like that and mowed so close.  Standing on that first green, I gazed across to other holes that begged to be played. I was thrilled, mesmerized and hooked forever."

[Jeff Doerr]

Jim, I'll take a stab at it...

I play golf because it gives me joy. I read an author many years ago who defined joy as longing. I play golf because I can't wait until I get to tee it up again. I play beacuse I know the next shot can be better than the last one, the next round will be where I go deep. It is the competition with yourself and others, but it is so much more.

I play because it was my Dad's game that he invited me into when I was young. It is a game you play against yourself and the course, but it is a game you play with family and friends. Outside of my family, my best friends are my golfing friends.

I play because of the beauty, civility, history, power and finesse of the game. No other game can rival the field of play in golf. The land, the architect, and the weather create a venue like no other. It is a game for gentlemen and ladies to play as they follow in the long line that came before. The game has a scale that allows one to hit it hard and watch their ball almost disappear into the distance. That same scale demands a surgeon's touch on a downhill hard-breaking three foot putt.

I play golf because I have to. No other pastime delivers like golf. No other sport creates and satisfies the longing inside. I play golf because it gives me joy.

[Dave Bourgeois]

I play for the feeling I get when a mid range putt falls for a Par.  I like the mental struggle of removing the bad thoughts and letting the body do what it has done before.

Only problem is I am not very good at either, but that makes me keep going back.

Oh I like architecture as well.

[John Kavanaugh]

I remember one winter in my youth when the guys I played golf with came to me and asked why I don't hang with them during the off season.  They said they were just my golf buds.  I play for the buds.

note:  This moment in my life hurt me as it was the first time someone had pointed out to me that I am a self-centered person who is most interested in myself and how the world evolves around my wants and needs.

[Dan Kelly]

I am a self-centered person who is most interested in myself and how the world evolves around my wants and needs.

You and everyone else. Forgive yourself, John!

[Mike_Cirba]

Nice one, Jeff Doerr...very well stated.


In that spirit, after walking a very hilly 36 this past Monday, I had 3 large blisters on my feet and what can be best described in a family forum as "crotch chafing".

I woke up the next morning and went down to the 24 hour shop in the hotel to purchase sewing needles, band-aids, Vaseline, and extra-strengh aspirin so that I could go play 36 again.

[Dan Kelly]

Nice one, Jeff Doerr...very well stated.

Agreed. Excellent.

In that spirit, after walking a very hilly 36 this past Monday, I had 3 large blisters on my feet and what can be best described in a family forum as "crotch chafing".

I woke up the next morning and went down to the 24 hour shop in the hotel to purchase sewing needles, band-aids, Vaseline, and extra-strengh aspirin so that I could go play 36 again.

I think I'm understanding most of this -- but what are those sewing needles for?!? Not the crotch chafing, I hope!

[Mike_Cirba]

I think I'm understanding most of this -- but what are those sewing needles for?!? Not the crotch chafing, I hope!

Dan,

Much like the practices of the more serious Opus Dei practitioners, some things must be done on faith alone.  

[Tom Huckaby]

Dan - popping the blisters.

Been there, done that, sadly.

[John Kavanaugh]

One thing that I love about playing golf is that it gives me a chance at the end of a day to do nothing but think about me.  I always enjoy going through a round trying to decide my best shot of the day until I fall fast asleep.

[Jordan Wall]

- Because I want a hole in one.
- Because I am ok at golf and can therefore enjoy it once in a while
- To have something to yell at (golf God's, perhaps)
- To have an excuse to get out of the house
- Because there's nothing better to do during the day (note..during the day)
- To excersice
- Because I like to travel and see new places
- Cart girls
- Because closest to the pin and long drive competitions are possibly the best compeitions on earth, especially when playing for lunch
- Because I like to suffer (?)
- To get more exercise (again, but this is important)
- Because at night...wait, no, late evening, cart racing is the best thing to do ever
- Because its fun


- Oh, and because I like golf clothes

 

[RJ_Daley]

Dan, I hate to burst your bubble, butt...  

I play golf because I'm too chicken to get my thrills as a mercenary commando, dropping into hot spots around the globe, dispatching tyrants with extreem prejudice...

I grew up living next to a modest Bendelow 9 holer.  From the very first memories I have, that golf course first tee and club house was a wedge from our back yard property line.  That course was our constant playground, not for golf when we were small, but for shagging found balls near the OB a little sooner than they were actually declared lost, and reselling them, playing in the woods, and generally just scampering around all day long.   We would sometimes take a single old iron or wood or putter out and just knock it around before dark, or in spring before opening or fall after close.  We played touch football and smear on the FWs in non golf season along with a place to shoot our bow and arrows and bb guns.  But we were always somehow in contact with the property.  I guess I developed an affinity for the grounds and finally pre teen played my first actual rounds of golf.  

[Bill_McBride]

Dan - popping the blisters.

Been there, done that, sadly.

I started the day when I made the hole in one at Stevinson Ranch (in what used to be known as "The Kings Putter") by doing 6 a.m. minor foot surgery on the bottom of the big toe on my right foot where the callous had separated from the toe after 36 holes of soggy walking the day before.  

I play golf because it's a lot more fun than absolutely anything else I do with my clothes on!  

[Jeff_Brauer]

Because it feels better than hitting myself over the head with a hammer, but not by much...

[David Stamm]

I ask myself that every damn time I go out there.


Plain and simple. To have fun and enjoy the company of those I like to play with and hopefully meet new friends. Sure it gets frustrating that you can't play the way you know you can sometimes, but to quote Peter Jacobsen, I'm not good enough to get mad out there.

[Dan Kelly]

I've got way the hell more important things to do.  

Such as?

(Of course, we're all addicted. And if you ask me, it's a wonderful addiction. Some part of me is already mourning its loss, when age will say: "Enough, man. Enough already!" And even then, I hope, I'll spend some happy old hours chipping and putting the day away.)

[Michael Dugger]

Because playing at a great golf course gives me a thrill.

I fully subscribe to Dr. Mackenzie's theory, as well, that pleasurable excitement is beneficial to your health.

Golf is a great game.  It sees no color, gender nor age.  There is no one way to play, to putt or to swing other than whichever way works best for you.  In this regard, Captain Thomas was right on the money when he wrote,

"Golf is a game of balance.  The man who knows the value of each of his clubs, and who can work out when it is proper to play one and when to play another, succeeds at the game.  The ability of a golfer to know his power and accuracy, and to play for what he can accomplish, is a thing which makes his game as perfect as can be; while a thinker who gauges the true value of his shots, and is able to play the shot well, nearly always defeats an opponent who neglects to consider and properly discount his shortcomings."

You don't have to run fast or jump high to play golf well.

It teaches honor, patience and perseverance.  Somedays, when everything clicks into place.....you are killing the ball, dropping putts and the sun shines over the links in just the right way, you'd have to be a fool to not think something "greater" is going on in this world than what our feebile little humanoid brains can comprehend.

Playing golf is about as close as I come to having a conversation with God.

[Dan Kelly]

Don't change a word, Michael.

[John Kavanaugh]

You don't have to run fast or jump high to play golf well.

That is no longer true.  If you are going to compete at a decent level you need to be reasonably athletic.  

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