"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
I golf, therefore I am – nuts
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I golf, therefore I am – nuts, George Fuller, Human Kinetics, 2010. (228 pages with original cartoons for every chapter).
I could not call this a great book but it is a witty and engaging insight into the obsession that is golf. The book wonderfully captures the essence of the game.
The unique nature of golf is brought out - a game where a 90 year old and a 7 year old can play together, where you can pay $5 for a round or $5000 for a membership and as he puts it which tennis player would travel to Australia just to play on a particular tennis court? (Pages 4 and 5)
I loved his 25 laws of golf including:
· Your best round of golf ever will be followed immediately by your worst ever.
· The better you hit the ball in the warm-up, the worse you will play on the course.
· Any ball you can see in rough is not yours. (Pages 19ff).
The book is illustrated with excellent cartoons throughout. The cartoon for this chapter shows Moses coming down the mountain with the laws of golf.
Plato once said that you learn more about someone in an hour of play than you do in an day of conversation. Fuller’s adaptation is "Eighteen holes of match or medal play will teach you more about your foe that 18 years of dealing with him (or her) across a desk" (Page 66)
The book is full of witty remarks which ring true
"We're all good at something. It's just that the vast majority of us are not good at golf". (Page 63)
[On Golf lessons] "Today’s piece of information invariably contradicts yesterday's" (Page 83)
"You can improve your game 100 percent by quitting". Page 104
Chapter 42 "My favourite excuse" is very helpful in helping you communicate why - yet again - you played badly. "People were talking when I hit my shot; it was too quiet when I hit my shot, the squirrels were staring at me…."
For people for whom excuses are not enough, there is help. Page 106 suggests a support group, a kind of Golfers Anonymous, which would support golfers who are brave enough to give up and help them when they are tempted to book a tee time!
But for most of us who will never give up, there is a great piece of advice: "Love your great shots and accept your bad shots. Try to improve, sure, but remember who you are". (Page 99)
Well worth reading.