John Paul Newport is a contributing editor for Maximum Golf and has also written for Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, Golf, Golf Digest, Fortune, and numerous other magazines. He lives with his wife and daughter in Nyack, New York.
My infatuation with golf was baffling, even to me. Almost none of
my friends in New York played. Most, in fact, still viewed the game
as a shameful, bourgeois absurdity. But I was forever dreaming
about my next fix.
Part of its appeal no doubt had to do with the personal troubles I
was going through at the time. Golf was a refuge. At home and at
the office I hardly knew which end was up, but on the golf course
the rules were clear. Order prevailed. Plus you had the tweeting
birds and the gentle breezes and the bright green grass
everywhere--the same elements that make mental asylums such
pleasant places to spend time.
In addition to all that, I was steadily getting better, which was
good for my ego. But this led to delusions. The primary cause of
golf's maddening addiction, I soon discovered, is that every golfer
knows for a fact that he or she is actually much, much better than
his scores would indicate.
--from The Fine Green Line
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