The inexhaustible competitive charm of golf lies in its handicap strokes, whereby all players are theoretically equalized and an underdog can become, with a small shift of fortunes, a top dog.  Drama is a key word, for golf is, within the arena of the foursome, not only a war but theatre; each player has a golf persona, a predictable character, which the hazards of play subject to unpredictable shifts of fate by turns hilarious, thrilling, heroic, and pathetic.  We are actors and audience in swift alternation; our love of one another is the love that enthralled spectators bear toward performers, heightened by the circumstance that the spotlight visits everyone, as the honor falls.

John Updike

The Camaraderie of Golf-II

Golf Dreams-Writings on Golf