OUR REGULAR GAME NO. 10

         In perhaps his most classic line, the cartoon character Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”  That simple statement not only described the truth about life’s self-inflicted wounds, it captured the essential challenge of golf.

           The game we love so much is unique for many reasons.  But the main thing that distinguishes golf from other games is that it provides us with the most formidable opponent we will ever face: ourselves.  And that essential truth disproves two major myths about the game.

          The first myth is all the talk you hear about playing your opponent.  Forget that.   He ain’t the enemy.  Besides, you can’t guard him or tackle him.  You can’t steal his clubs.  In fact, you can’t do anything to make him hit a bad shot.   The Rules of Golf even go so far as to make it illegal for you to do anything that distracts another player or influences his play in any way.  In the end, Jack Nicklaus summed it up best when he said: “You can only win with your own clubs.”

          Now that doesn’t mean that golf makes every man a lonely island unto himself.  The truth is that golf’s unique code of sportsmanship has produced, in former USGA President Reg Murphy’s words, a very “civilizing” game.  Golfers are very special in the way they maintain the game’s integrity.

           Given the individual nature of the game, you wouldn’t expect it, but golfers are constantly encouraging each other to improve their games.  From the PGA Tour on down, it’s common for fellow competitors to trade tips on putting or point out how they’re laying the club off on the top of the backswing.  For whatever reason, golfers at every level seem especially keen on sharing whatever knowledge they have of the game to improve the scores of their fellow competitors.  If you don’t think that’s special, imagine Jason Giambi telling Curt Schilling, “You know, if you pitched me low and away more often, you’d strike me out every time.”

           I suspect golfers are so eager to assist one another because they recognize that, in the end, we’re all alone out there.  That’s when we must overcome the common enemy Pogo identified: us.     In order to fight that common enemy, golfers are necessarily drawn together.  The irony, of course, is that, even in this most individual of all sports, where we must accept all blame for the bad shots, we must share credit for the good ones with others.  (If you know Tiger Woods, you know Butch Harmon.)

           That brings us to the second myth about the game, which is the claim that the real opponent in golf is the course.  The course ain’t the enemy, either.  The golf course never puts your ball anywhere you don’t hit it.  It doesn’t make you hit that five-iron when you really need a four-iron to get there.  And it doesn’t make you try that heroic shot over water to reach the par five in two when a layup would get you an easy par or maybe even a one-putt birdie.  Unless you’re lucky enough to have a caddie to share the blame, the fact is the enemy within you made those decisions.

           In the end, the challenge of golf isn’t about other players or the course; like Pogo said, it’s about overcoming our own fears and weaknesses.  All of which brings us to the most important point of all:  What was Pogo’s handicap, anyway?

           For our Regular Game, this is Mike Veron, hoping every tree that gets in your way is truly 90% air.

  About the Author

J. Michael Veron is the acclaimed author of The Greatest Player Who Never Lived and The Greatest Course That Never Was. His third novel, tentatively titled The Caddie, is scheduled for release in the spring of 2002.

Mike's work has earned him the title of "master of fiction" from USA Today, and Travel and Leisure Golf Magazine has called him "The John Grisham of Golf." In addition, the New York Times hailed The Greatest Player as "Golf's Literary Rookie of the Year," and the Seattle Times ranked The Greatest Player as second on its all-time list of "Five Wonderful Golf Books." At one time, The Greatest Player and The Greatest Course were the first and third best-selling sports fiction in the country.

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