This article is going to be the most individual of all, as everyone has a different idea of what their spirit is, and what it needs. With that said, most golfers would agree that the game does something positive for their overall spirit, even if they can’t put their finger on it exactly. In this section, we are going to list a few of the things about golf that may benefit your spirit.
- Spending quality time with friends. This is one of the main motivations for people to keep coming back to the golf course. If you have a group of friends you regularly play with, the time you spend with them on the course may be one of your favorite things about the game. You’ll get to joke around, catch up on life away from the course, and just have a good time overall.
- Since a round of golf usually takes four hours or more, and much of that time is spent sitting in the cart or walking up the fairway, there is plenty of time to talk.
- In fact, you might find this point beneficial even if you are playing golf with strangers. If you get paired up with someone new on the first tee, you may enjoy talking with them throughout the day. Golf has a way of bringing people together, which is certainly one of its most enduring qualities.
- Spending time outdoors. Many of us spend the majority of our lives inside. Now that so many people work indoors on computers, it is harder and harder to make time to enjoy nature. While playing a round of golf is not exactly like hiking in the woods, it does allow you to be outside in the fresh air. This is another point that is high on many people’s list of things they love about the game.
- Think about how often you are outdoors for as long as you will be if you play an 18-hole round of golf. Most likely, this doesn’t happen very often. By the end of the round, you’ll probably feel that you’ve had a great time being outside, even if your score doesn’t quite add up the way you’d like.
- Competing with yourself. With this last point, we are not talking about competing in golf tournaments or anything like that. We simply are referring to the kind of competition that occurs naturally within yourself when playing this difficult game.
- Even if you aren’t a particularly competitive person, you almost certainly want to do your best on the course. For instance, if your best-ever score is an 85, and you are getting near the end of a round with a chance to do one or two better, you are going to feel nervous. And those nerves are exciting. As an adult, it is easy to settle into the habit of just doing the same things over and over again, without striving for anything more.
- In golf, you’ll always have the opportunity to do better. No one has ever played a perfect round, meaning every golfer in the world has room to improve. The ongoing competition that you can have within yourself is another one of the big selling points for this great game.
You might derive great pleasure from some of the points on our list above, or you might think we are way off track. For example, maybe you prefer to play golf alone, appreciating the peace and quiet that comes with leaving technology – and other people – behind. That’s totally fine, of course. It is up to you to decide what gives you pleasure in this game, and then you can seek out situations to fill that need.
