GOLF ISN’T AS DEMANDING AS MANY OF US ASSUME IT TO BE

We were talking together about how golf is a lonely game, and in spite of its association with conviviality and sociable club life, it is essentially a highly introverted pastime. In theory, there ought to be no great difficulty about hitting the ball.

In fact, it requires no great amount of physical strength to swing a club weighing next to nothing, although we may think it needs all the exertion we can produce.

The action of swinging a golf club is not complicated or difficult, although most of us make it so.

And the degree of precision needed to implant the club face flush to the ball is no greater than a hundred everyday actions which we unerringly perform without conscious thought.

If we could play golf with the same conditioned instincts, we would have no problem.

But we cannot.

The fact is that golf is difficult because we make it so.

All manner of inhibitions and fears rise up in the mind of a man about to hit a golf ball, some of them demons of his own creation and some impressed on his imagination by the daunting sight of the way ahead.

What is basically a straightforward pitch shot has turned into a feverish ordeal entirely through the interaction of past memories, self-doubts and visual forebodings in the mind of the golfer.

Meanwhile, Mr Pars called me to say that I didn’t mention his even-par 51st place finish in the CJ Cup and his subsequent cheque of US$21,645.

This week, he is playing in the Zozo Championship and is confident that his par rounds will bring in another nice cheque.

Out of Bounds: So we play against ourselves. We are our own enemy far more than any flesh and blood opponent. Golf is therefore much more than a test of manual skill and dexterity — it is also a trial of true character.