“The friendship and the banter were actually more important than the golf I think, for you can play golf on your own and yes, that can be a mentally relaxing experience in the right environment: but the subtle one-liners, the humour, the incessant rivalry over 18 holes when you are giving away an unfathomable number of shots for often no more than a £1 either way… it’s just fun.

Think about it… the 18 holes in a game of golf takes about four and a half hours to play, depending on the usual factors. Yet in the time it takes for Taylor Swift to sing her latest genre-hopping chart hit you’ll expend all your concentration on hitting the ball.

The rest of your participation in a typical game with your friends usually consists of hours of non-stop social interaction, the exploration of every nuance of the game played by the professionals, your fellow players’ shots, the world of sports, the politics of the day, the state of the course and possibly what soup they might have on the menu today in the Clubhouse. Often the latter can enter the conversation as early as the fifth hole, depending on how your game is going.

Although golf is admittedly an individual game in those moments where you and your inner demons are standing over the ball, it is unique when it comes to time spent amongst fellow players between activity. You walk from the green to the tee together. You walk down the fairway (mostly) together. You spend around three minutes together looking for a fellow player’s lost ball, sharing that sense of excitement (or despair) when found. You share in the success of a great shot without the need to collectively roll around on the green kissing each other… a pat on the back or a highfive will suffice.

The experiences between the shots are, for me, what makes golf golf – whether it’s the chat, the interaction between you and the course or just the views.”

Murray Bothwell

The Game We Play

Links Diary #10

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