Golf as Meaningful Play – a Philosophical Guide

This is a book that every reflective golfer will enjoy reading, and it is sure to enhance your pleasure in an understanding of the game. Its fundamental message is framed in terms of Aristotelian virtue ethics that golf is best understood in terms of self-fulfilment or eudaemonia, with corresponding virtues often associated with the mean, for instance neither too tense nor too relaxed. So golf is less about performance and outcome – "how am I doing?" – than "what kind of person am I trying to be?" and it is here that the virtues come in: courage, temperance, justice, wisdom and friendship. A whole chapter is devoted to the idea of the shot in terms not only of mechanics, but also felt imagination and where each hole is a drama in three or four shots - or perhaps rather more… Golfers all know appreciate the importance of emotional and mental self-management. As Bobby Jones put it, "golf is played mainly on a 5 ½ inch course: the space between your ears." There is an interesting contrast between Scottish golf as "freedom and the challenge of mastering an often unkind universe" with the American "ideal of perfect skilfulness achieved in a beautiful, but hazardous garden." The author correspondingly contrasts the ethos of Augusta and Royal Dornoch, while also discussing the significance of the four greats, each with their own hallmarks: Jones, Hogan, Palmer (not Nicklaus) and Woods. Nor does he forget community, tradition and friendship, which all golfers know so well - and there is a discussion of other well-known books and films with which some readers will be familiar. One striking observation from Scott Peck is his parallel with Christian kenosis or self-emptying as the ego is inflated by triumph, then deconstructed by disasters during the round - perhaps a textbook case cited is Jean van de Velde at Carnoustie in 1999. There are many other rich seams in this hugely informative book which golfers are sure to relish as a treasured item in their golfing library.