K e e p e r s o f t h e G a m e
To retain and enhace golf's core values
The Game for a Lifetime
It has often been said that golf is a game for a lifetime. Usually, people think that means that golf can be played by someone of any age. That's true.
It also means that you can play it for a lifetime, and still learn new things about it every time you play.
But it also means something else most people don't think about. To understand this extra meaning, you have to think about what a lifetime really is. A "lifetime" defines a life from birth until death, however long that may be, and all the experiences, feelings and thoughts a person has during that time. A "lifetime" suggest an accumulation of wisdom and a perspective gained from an uneven collection of the joys and sorrows of being alive.
A subtle definition of golf as a game for a lifetime means that, in the smaller confines of a golf course a player experiences in miniature all the agony and ecstasy of birth, life, and death. But, golf, being a game, it always offers a better tomorrow. No matter how dark the night, the sunrise over the first hole promises that today is a new day, and hope will power the ball down the fairway.
Yet, there is more. What if, after acquiring a lifetime of wisdom and perspective, you could relive your entire life all over again, but with the benefit of all you had learned the first time? Would your values be clearer and more solid? Would you be kinder? Share more? Reach out to help others? Be more honest? Honorable? Self-reliant?
This aspect of golf is the most wonderful part of being a game of a lifetime. If you could live two lifetimes, the second would be so much less self-centered and so much more oriented to the pursuit of excellence and the welfare of others.
Golfers who have played by the rules and suffered a seeming lifetime of success and failure on the course often reach this plateau of understanding. They have learned that winning and losing are inconsequential compared to honor. They understand that a worthy opponent is a comrade. They know that the course is to be left as it was found. They realize above all that golf can be a four-hour expression of all that is grand in mankind.
The core golf values exhibited by these players is a metaphor for the best in mankind.
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It also means that you can play it for a lifetime, and still learn new things about it every time you play.
But it also means something else most people don't think about. To understand this extra meaning, you have to think about what a lifetime really is. A "lifetime" defines a life from birth until death, however long that may be, and all the experiences, feelings and thoughts a person has during that time. A "lifetime" suggest an accumulation of wisdom and a perspective gained from an uneven collection of the joys and sorrows of being alive.
A subtle definition of golf as a game for a lifetime means that, in the smaller confines of a golf course a player experiences in miniature all the agony and ecstasy of birth, life, and death. But, golf, being a game, it always offers a better tomorrow. No matter how dark the night, the sunrise over the first hole promises that today is a new day, and hope will power the ball down the fairway.
Yet, there is more. What if, after acquiring a lifetime of wisdom and perspective, you could relive your entire life all over again, but with the benefit of all you had learned the first time? Would your values be clearer and more solid? Would you be kinder? Share more? Reach out to help others? Be more honest? Honorable? Self-reliant?
This aspect of golf is the most wonderful part of being a game of a lifetime. If you could live two lifetimes, the second would be so much less self-centered and so much more oriented to the pursuit of excellence and the welfare of others.
Golfers who have played by the rules and suffered a seeming lifetime of success and failure on the course often reach this plateau of understanding. They have learned that winning and losing are inconsequential compared to honor. They understand that a worthy opponent is a comrade. They know that the course is to be left as it was found. They realize above all that golf can be a four-hour expression of all that is grand in mankind.
The core golf values exhibited by these players is a metaphor for the best in mankind.
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