‘Thank you,’ President Obama, for continuing to think about your golf game by putting on the White House lawn and even setting up with an imaginary club prior to a recent event in Los Angeles.   Both instances produced photo images in the July issue of Golf Digest, prompting comments by Steve Rushin and Editor, Jerry Tarde, on the good-ness of golf.

The point of their musings is that the game of golf is getting a bad name in the middle of economic challenges.  There appears to be widespread misperceptions that golf is a nonessential excess only for the wealthy, and has no place in an atmosphere of cutbacks, lay-offs, and financial frugality.  I disagree.  And apparently so do the writers in Golf Digest, and so do you.

Now, more than ever, is the time for golf!  The game of golf is inspiring, uplifting, all-inclusive, and positive. And when have we ever needed these down-to-earth, balancing attributes to embrace, more than now?

Golf is one of the few institutions still hanging on to good old-fashioned traditional etiquette; the requirement of being quiet while others are concentrating, the disciplined constraint of waiting for one’s turn, the respectful act of tucking in your shirt, and the obligation to trust your partner to keep her own score with integrity. The game relies on a sense of individual and collective fairness in letting faster players ‘play through,’ and propels even the weariest of us to get up off the couch and simply get outdoors.  

Anyone can play with no exceptions.  Male.  Female.  Young.  Old.  Any race, any creed, any political bias.  The corporate boss, as well as the janitor who cleans the boss’s office.  On any given day a professional golfer and amateur both can have the same leveling experience of ‘moments of brilliance’ on one hole and moments of humility in a sand trap, on the next. I have even taken my year-and-a-half old grandson who can barely feed himself, and enjoyed more than anything just being outside together and having fun trying to hit a little ball with a big stick.

Admittedly, I don’t belong to a golf club, I don’t live on a golf course, and I don’t even get to play as often as I like.  When I do play, or just show up at the driving range, I change into my golf shoes in the parking lot behind the trunk of my car and I use a set of off-brand, less expensive clubs that no one’s ever heard of.  I only use a golf-cart on special occasions, and I pick up every misplaced tee and lost golf ball I find with the same exuberant joy of an actor receiving an award. 

I simply love the game for the most basic and uplifting of reasons, and every one of us could sure use some uplifting at this point in time.  Thanks, Mr. President, for leading the way.