One lifelong golfer answers a fellow writer's hatred of the game with a simple truth: the perfect shot is rare, and it keeps you hooked.
Golf has a way of humbling everyone who picks up a club, and one veteran player is making the case that the frustration is exactly the point. Responding to a columnist's public declaration that he hates the game, the reader says he understands the pain completely.
The suffering is familiar to any golfer: a shot sprays right, the next hooks left, and a whole round unravels in a string of bad swings. Then comes the twist. One flawless drive splits the fairway, or a 20-yard putt drops on the final green, and suddenly the misery is forgotten. That single moment is what drags players back the following week, convinced they have finally figured the game out.
After 60 years on the course, the writer has accepted a hard lesson. You can master parts of golf some of the time, but never all of it all of the time. That gap between what you can do and what you want to do is what makes the sport so addictive.
Beyond the scorecard, the game has given him plenty more. He has played courses across the country and throughout Europe, soaking up stunning views and building friendships that outlast any bad round. For him, that is the real payoff, and the reason he calls golf a wonderful game despite everything it throws at him.
