Opinion & Analysis
Golf doesn’t have to be what you see on TV

“Golf is a game, and talk and discussion is all to the interests of the game. Anything that keeps the game alive and prevents us being bored with it is an advantage. Anything that makes us think about it, talk about it, and dream about it is all to the good and prevents the game becoming dead.” -Alister MacKenzie
Easily my favorite golf quote of all time. One that encourages progress though critical thought and civil discourse. One that, when pondered a few times throughout a golfer’s season (or career), offers a much-needed gut check and a window into his or her soul.
What really keeps the game alive for you? What keeps you thinking about it, talking about it, and dreaming about it? What gives you that burning desire to peg it up on Saturdays? Is it a chance to hang out with the guys for a couple hours? A chance to cross a course off your bucket list? A chance to shoot a new career low and impress your boss?
As golfers of a certain climate enter our offseason, it offers a much-needed time to reflect and reset. Maybe you’ve been on a massive hot streak recently and your enjoyment of the game has never been higher. Good for you! If you’ve found your sweet spot with the game of golf, this piece is in no way intended to sway you from it.

17th hole at Dormie Club. Photo credit: Scott Arden
What I do find important, though, is that we use our offseason to discuss the reality all of us know too well: that there are millions of golfers in this world, yet only a very small fraction of us will ever earn a living playing it. If you’ve found yourself in a place where you’ve grown tired of obsessing over your score, perseverating on driver shaft options, or pontificating about wedge spin rates, maybe it’s time to hit the proverbial pause button and remind yourself of the following:
Golf doesn’t have to be what you see on TV.
Of course, we all admire the professional game (as we should), but the truth is that golf is a pastime for the vast majority of us, not a career. The point of any hobby, game, or activity you might participate in regularly is to enjoy the process of performing that activity. And it’s through that enjoyment that we keep on going. Sure, it’s easy to enjoy golf when you play well and if given the choice, we would all prefer to shoot lower scores (myself included). But I would also contend that maximum enjoyment need not be directly linked to a minimization of score. In some cases, that can be a good way to suck all the fun out of it.
This time last year, I was a bona fide head case. Constantly frustrated with my score, contemplating swing fixes, and tweaking clubs. Two-way misses and chipping yips are not a recipe for pleasant trips to the course I can assure you, but if we’re being honest with each other, we’ve all been there at some point. Also at that time, I tweeted out my goals for 2019. I am unusually proud to say I achieved none of the score-related goals, yet 2019 is arguably my best year in golf.
I played in a hickory tournament. I hosted a persimmon and blade tournament. I played barefoot. I played with as few as four clubs in the bag. I even played the forward tees. More than once. I played without keeping score several times. I befriended a ton of other likeminded golfers who enhance my appreciation for the game. Some are better players than me and some aren’t. Not that any of us care. I found so many mini-experiences within the game of golf that have lit up the proverbial kid in me and I’m infinitely better for it.

Hickory club trophies at the Ringer. Photo credit: Scott Arden.
Harvey Penick’s “The Little Red Book” is an annual read for me, usually around this time of year. It’s full of so much timeless wisdom that I somehow seem to pull little nuances out of it every time. His equally valuable follow-up book “The Game for a Lifetime” contains an anecdote from Harvey’s notes titled “Have Fun,” which beautifully illustrates what I’m trying to get across.
“When I say to have fun on the golf course, what I mean is to take pleasure in the game and in your companions and your surroundings. Whether you are at Pebble Beach or pulling your trolley at Rancho Park, be mindful that you are in a special place. Be aware of the trees and the sky and the feel of the earth under your feet. Listen to the byplay of your companions. Breathe deeply. Forget the stock market. Enjoy yourself fully while you are inside the boundaries of the golf course, a world of its own…I believe playing golf can bring you happiness…It’s perfectly okay to play just for the love of the game…Put your mind at ease at the golf course and have fun. Golf is a game for everyone, not just for the talented few.”
If we’re being honest with each other, I think we all need that reality check from time to time. Yes, you should work on your swing, practice your short game, and try to shoot the best scores you can. But the truth is golf is so much bigger than a number on a scorecard. I suppose if you really wanted, you could distill this entire piece into a mere seven words that Patrick Boyd of Scratch Golf and National Custom Works fame is often keen to say on his Instagram feed:
“Do what makes you love golf. Period.”
Opinion & Analysis
The 2 primary challenges golf equipment companies face

As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Podcasts
Fore Love of Golf: Introducing a new club concept

Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Opinion & Analysis
On Scottie Scheffler wondering ‘What’s the point of winning?’

Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
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“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
James
Jan 13, 2020 at 9:39 pm
I tend to play focused and go for the lowest score. I see nothing except for the path to scoring. One time on a par 5 in Hawaii, that rambles up a valley toward the mountains I discovered a thin little snail trail through the morning dew on the fairway. Out of curiosity I followed that sucker off the fairway, through the rough, through the woods, down to a gurgling little creek I had never seen nor heard before… and found the trailmaker himself. It was a defining moment and now I try to see and feel the course itself, revel in the nature of things… and keep my score intact.
dave
Jan 13, 2020 at 12:10 pm
Played regular weekend round on Saturday in 40F with 20+ mph winds with 7 clubs in the bag (D, 3W, 22h, 6, 8, SW, P)…and played to my 10 hcp. FUN
2putttom
Jan 12, 2020 at 12:35 pm
I keep repeating the lyrics. I’m not as good as I was once was, I’m as good once as I ever was. So I spend time noticing things I used to walk by while waiting for my playing partner to hit the next shot. Beautiful game played in beautiful environment.
MPC
Jan 12, 2020 at 8:12 am
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the grind of getting better. It can be very rewarding. You don’t have to stop and smell the roses on the course. Some people prefer to reflect on life off the course.
So many preachy golfers out there. Let everyone enjoy the game however they choose. Some peoples escape is grinding and lowering their score. Nothing wrong with that.
Richey
Jan 11, 2020 at 8:27 pm
For 7 years 3 or 4 some we have played “Scramble” best ball almost every Tuesday. Sure it has ruined my club game but the fun is well worth it. We call it no one wants to play their own ball anymore and we all want to put our hands on ball before every shot. We play fast, never hold anyone up and are all happy to head for Lunch in 3.5 hours or less each Tuesday. All being over 65 this is the perfect way to enjoy a round with friends…we also let the one hitting approach shot the closet put for a Quarter…made a dollar once…
Speedy
Jan 11, 2020 at 7:11 pm
1. Play fast
2. No fish stories, just tell it like it is.