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“Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots, but you have to play the ball where it lies.”
This sentiment came from the mind of American golfer Bobby Jones, who has stood as one of the most influential figures in the field.
While liking a sport to life isn’t new, having someone claim that golf reflects life still seems unusual or foreign. After all, it does appear to be one of those publicly “underwhelming” sports compared to the likes of basketball or football. However, regardless of how undemanding it may seem to the audience, numerous golfers have expressed the countless benefits they’ve reaped from simply swinging, even to the point of improving their lives because of it.
Perhaps it’s due to how repetitious the nature of the sport is that it allows players to introspect while circling the mountain. But it’s not only Bobby Jones that sees how golf reflects life.
How Golf Reflects Life
“One of the most fascinating things about golf is how it reflects the cycle of life. No matter what you shoot – the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something.” – Peter Jacobsen
Among the many elements woven into the glorious sport, its repetitive nature seems to be the one that’s most likely capturing how golf reflects life. Like how days start anew once the sun rises, golfers perceive every day as an opportunity to restart regardless of playing the same holes.
Like life, golf can be monotonous. It’s going through the same routine. It’s attempting to shoot the ball through the same holes every day, hoping something different will happen.
To the eyes of someone who’s under-appreciative of the little things, this makes both golf and life tedious. They become a never-ending cycle that is predictable and lifeless. But to someone who desires growth and success, it’s striving for the little shifts and hoping these will produce consequential changes that matter.
Golf often gets a bad reputation.
Unlike other sports, the game seems underwhelming and uncompetitive as it doesn’t rely on physical exertion or public hype. It’s calm and organized, exuding an air of luxury throughout every competition. However, beyond what may seem monotonous to the public’s lens, it is brimming with intricacies and complexities from a player’s perspective.
How Does Golf Imitate Life? A Word From Someone Who’s Played Most His Life
Philip Ripley Ward, an independent golf specialist, wrote a book following his experience and what this taught him in life. As the title goes, Golf Is Not What You Think details what it entails to be a golfer from a player’s perspective. It draws comparisons with the public’s misconceptions and sprinkles in nitty-gritty that captures the sport’s complex nature.
In writing his book, the author has unknowingly related golf to life, aligning his journey in the field with his growth as a person. Hence, he defines his book as a manual written to help golfers succeed in the sport and people in life. He intimately bears the insights he’s learned from playing for over 40 years, sharing how his game helped improve his life.
“Do I have to play like everybody else, or can I play my own game?” – Philip Ripley Ward
It seems like an overstretch claiming golf reflects life. How such a concept that even philosophers struggle to understand is likened to the simple game of swinging and shooting. However, when slowed down and analyzed from the viewpoint of players, a lot happens during the game. It’s filled with moments that aren’t solely spent measuring distance or hole width. Instead, within the span of a game, golfers are also given the chance to self-reflect and introspect in life, leading people to realize their motivations and emotions. Golf reflects life in a way that also helps people understand themselves.
Again, it seems far-reaching, an over-dramatization of what golf is. But take it from Bobby Jones, Peter Jacobsen, and Philip Ripley Ward: there’s more to golf than meets the eye.
What Does Golf Teach About Life?
Golf reflects life for the very simple reason that it teaches people a lot of things. From the sport’s technicality to the introspection they get during intervals, golfers learn a lot beyond swinging their clubs. Both golf and life are humbling experiences that can only be excelled when people understand their weaknesses. Those little pauses people and golfers get between challenges/holes allow them to deduce where to improve carefully.
Like life, golf is only won when people embrace their losses. When they realize where they’ve been wrong before and work on improving it, golfers are better able to handle the next hole.
Hence, how people play the game can be perceived similarly to how they lead their lives.
Golf may appear to be a sport of swinging and hitting. However, it gradually and carefully builds people’s character, morality, and sense of fairness. People are allowed to start anew and grow from their experiences. They’re given opportunities to learn from their mistakes and seek development.
Golf reflects life, given that it challenges people to be stronger and more determined to reach their goals. The farther they are in life, the harder it can be to achieve anything. Yet, people aren’t rewarded when they give up. They’re rewarded when they push forth. Such a condition is also observed in golf.
Interested in learning more about Philip Ripley Ward’s life and how he connects golf with life? Purchase a copy of his book Golf Is Not What You Think!
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