On the day the 2021 PGA begins on Kiawah Island, I was thinking of my friend Andy Brumer, a skilled golfer and a terrific poet, whose book, The Poetics of Golf, for you golf fans is a must read. Which made me think that it was high time I wrote something about golf. Okay, so I don't know squat about golf. Should that stop me from writing about it? I watch golf, These days mostly because it is so peaceful on the eyes and mind, like a soccer field without the players. And in golf, there is scenery: trees in every variety in abundance, lakes, streams and oceans. Ducks, geese, and a the occasional solitary alligator refusing to acknowledge the golf ball in its path to water. The sport is also beautiful, not in the kinematic sense of a Steph Curry magically dribbling through the Lakers for a layup or LeBron James clutch long-range jumper that broke my heart last night as the Lakers defeated my Dubs in the Play In. It's the precision of golf that gets me. Every stroke depends on it from the drive off the tee, to the approach from a sand-trap to the putt. It's minimalist poetry.
I'm a great fan of the walk from Tee to second shot. The golfer's mind must be reasonably at rest, since he or she has little idea what to expect until she reaches her ball and determines her next shot, unless, of coarse he has seen the flight of the ball heading to New Jersey, in which case he is cursing himself down the fairway. Watching from my seat in front of the TV I do not know the turmoil going on in the golfer's mind, and imagine most golfers are enjoying the fresh air and a brief stretch of the legs. I repeat, I know nothing about golf.
I have my favorites. They have little to do with the numbers of majors they've won. I would mention all the old greats, except I never watched them. I'm a Johnny-come-lately to golf. I cheer for Little Tommy Fleetwood. Bubba Watson and his pink driver is a favorite. I've always liked lefties in all sports. In basketball, they're really tough to defend. My wife loves Jordan Spieth because his caddie is "gorgeous." I'm a Spieth fan also because of how he cherishes and cares for his challenged little sister. He's not a bad golfer too, and I'm pulling for him or Jason Day to win this years PGA. Sergio Garcia is one of the golfers I've always enjoyed watching, although he's slipped some. DeChambeau drives me nuts with his robot like approach to the game. I used to like Matt Kuchar until he tried to under pay his Hispanic caddie. I'm a Hideki Matsuyama fan since his brilliant win at the Masters this year, but also because I lived four years in Japan as a child, and I have a sportswriter friend, Ed Odevan. writing from Tokyo. I like personal connections to influence my preferences. I'm for Tony Finau because golf is really too white and needs a little color to perk it up. Nervous nelly Keegan Bradley is a golfer I get a big kick out of. Love his approach to the tee: step up, step back, spin the club, step up again, maybe back and forth again. Take a lude, dude! Top of my favorite's list is Rory Mcllroy. Do I have a reason? No. It's a gut reaction to his game, how it appeals to my to my senses, which is how I usually judge athletes in all sports. It is why LeBron James will never rank in the top ten of my greatest basketball players.
From Andy Bruner's The Poetics of Golf, Some may call this prose, I call it prose poetry.
Pro-trait #11: Se Ri Pak
Who has the best swing in golf? It's Se Ri Pak. Why? Because of the smooth and silky way she takes it back. Sam Sneed said the swing should resist friction like oil. Nor did he care if it belonged to a boy or a goil. Who has the best swing in golf? It's Se Ri Pak. Why? Because it looks like it grows from the root of a flower and that nothing fed it from a mechanical source.
Who has the best swing in golf?
A magazine editor asked me to choose one, and I thought, "Even a dunce by using his eyes can deduce it's "Se Ri Pak's" And he printed it.
