A golfing friend told me recently that his wife always called it a silly game. To some that may seem accurate, but to many, rather than ‘spoiled’, as some would have it, “Golf is a long walk enriched”.
On a ‘Fairways to Heaven’ holiday, you not only play golf (on top-notch Scottish links courses) but also talk about it and how it fits into your life. (See www.spiritualgolf.com) Last month in St Andrews, a group discussion at the hotel involved finishing the sentence, “I play golf because…” Typical answers included: “Because it brings mind and body into harmony”, “It is always a challenge”, “I’m out in the fresh air, exercising in beautiful countryside”, “I feel at one with the terrain and with nature”, “It helps me deal better with my emotions”, “I feel liberated when I play”, and, “I get to meet and play all over the world with wonderful like-minded people”. The simplest answer was, “Because I just love it!”
Attitude is important. If you think what you are doing is silly, so it will be for you. If, on the other hand, you think it can benefit you; physically, psychologically, socially and/or spiritually; that is also likely to be the nature of your experience.
Firstly, golf helps maintain a good degree of physical fitness (assuming you walk the course, rather than ride in a buggy). Secondly, it requires training, a process of developing skills dependent on intimate mind-body co-ordination. Thus it requires dedication, patience and persistence. Thirdly, there are frustrations aplenty, especially at the beginning, and you need to get acquainted with your emotions. Remember, "Feeling bad is not the problem. Feeling bad about feeling bad, that’s the problem." Of course, there are many joyful experiences to savour as well.
Fourthly, golf is a social game. Golfers are normally members of golf clubs and societies. You play with other people, sometimes in a friendly spirit, sometimes in a competitive one; usually in some kind of balance between the two. The golf clubhouse offers additional opportunities for social interaction, and most clubs organize social events to complement the golfing calendar. Couples and whole families meet, mingle together and make friendships.
Due to the golf handicapping system, golfers of different abilities can enjoy playing together. It is a sport for younger, more athletic people, and a game that can be played in a more leisurely way throughout life. Golfers in their 90’s are not unheard of. Men and women frequently play golf together; and golf, soon to become an Olympic sport, is popular in throughout the world. People with different political, religious or other ideological belief systems and practices can set these aside while they play golf together.
Golf has, in other words, a wonderfully unifying power and potential; and there is more.
Unlike tennis, athletics, hockey, football, or almost any other sport, golf is played on different golf courses, each one of which is more or less unique. Whether on linksland, downland or parkland, each offers the golfer the opportunity to get close to nature, to enjoy the healthy outdoors in any and all kinds of weather.
What is the fundamental appeal of golf? In many ways, it reflects the opportunities, challenges, aspirations and endeavours, the luck and misfortune, the comedy and tragedy, the sheer devilry and the wondrous miracles of everyday life. Every round is a journey, and each forms part of the greater journey that is a person’s golfing experience throughout life. It is spiritual through being intensely personal, striking towards the core of who we really are, constituting one avenue that can enable us to grow, little by little, into who we are meant to be.
In our lives, there is a gradual decline in power of the'everyday ego', self-centredly fixated on results and success. At the same time, there is the comparable rise of the 'spiritual self', equally in tune with and considerate towards other people and the environment. According to spiritual writers on golf like Michael Murphy, M. Scott Peck, Robin Sieger, Deepak Chopra, and Steven Pressfield, the key when playing a shot involves allowing the inner, spiritual self, somehow in tune with the divine wholeness of being, to take control. This allows the golfer to act with greater freedom, with mind and muscles fully in tune, totally ‘in the moment’, fully focussed on one thing… playing the shot. This Zen-like release is a reward in itself. Some ‘inner-body’ is at work, under the control of our ‘wisdom-mind’, intimately and seamlessly connected, moment by moment, with the sacred unity of the universe. You hit the perfect shot without even knowing how.
This happened to me when I was a novice golfer in my teens. In something of a trance on a warm day, after a long wait on the tee, I took out a mid-iron, swung the club and fired the ball towards the green. When we got there, I found my golf ball right where it was meant to be, in the hole. My mind had taken control of my body. It was wonderful, but not in the way you might think. I was pleased, but not exactly elated. I felt awed, grateful, humble, and strangely calm. It was as if someone else had done this, using me as a vehicle.
This was a genuinely spiritual experience, and golf for me has never been quite the same since. That day it took on special significance. Has the same thing happened again? Yes. And have similar moments of transcendence occurred in everyday life? Yes… But the first time remains very special. That is when I knew – completely without doubt – that there is another dimension to golf, and to life, than normally meets the eye. The task is not so much to make things happen, as to let them happen… Then miracles have a chance to come true.
Copyright Larry Culliford
Larry’s books include ‘The Psychology of Spirituality’, ‘Love, Healing & Happiness’ and (as Patrick Whiteside) ‘The Little Book of Happiness’ and ‘Happiness: The 30 Day Guide’ (personally endorsed by HH The Dalai Lama).