STROKE ME

No game illuminates the human condition like golf does.  It's up, it's down, and the amount of control you have is fleeting despite your best efforts.  It's a lifelong pursuit.  It's a walk in the park with friends, a social occasion.  The game itself is a very odd activity, when you think about it.  The rest is not.  The game gives birth to an entire world inside your head, the kind that non-golfers will never understand, unless perhaps they're into meditation, yoga, or break dancing.  The rest is just hanging out, throwing on the appropriate attire, grabbing a beer, a flask, maybe a smoke, and trekking through the afternoon...


Every miniscule niche activity in the world has its own style magazines, blogs, emerging cultures, trends, youth movements, and independent start-up ventures.  But not golf.  Follow the PGA, buy your equipment from one of the dozen international mega-companies, and dress like either an accountant in Dockers or a marketing tool in some Nike/Adidas uniform.  Golf's current popular image and culture in this country is the least interesting, least inspired, lamest, and all-around most douche-y of any sport you can think of.


Well that's a rotten shame, because golf, at its essence, has more tricks than skateboarding, is more spiritual than surfing, and has scenery as gorgeous as any fringe outdoor extreme sport.  And no game wrangles fierce competition into a genteel setting for true sportsmanship like golf does.  It is the greatest game ever played.