WSJ article about golf addiction

[tanktwo2]

I deliver wood 9 hours a day... some times I go in the back of my truck and make swings to make myself happy...lol

Kinda awkward when someone sees you do it but hell if i care haha

[Fourputt]

I will soon find out just how addicted I am.  My wife and I are about to move to a place with no golf course (about 6 months from now).  The nearest course is 60 miles away across open ocean, and it costs $250 per round to play there.  I don't expect a problem, but we shall see.  I've played golf as my primary recreation for nearly 30 years.

[Stretch]

Originally Posted by Fourputt

I will soon find out just how addicted I am.  My wife and I are about to move to a place with no golf course (about 6 months from now).  The nearest course is 60 miles away across open ocean, and it costs $250 per round to play there.  I don't expect a problem, but we shall see.  I've played golf as my primary recreation for nearly 30 years.

Predicting divorce!

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Predicting divorce!

Not likely.  This is a mutual dream, a home on the beach in the Bahamas.  We have 2 acres with 100 feet of beachfront.  We just finished building the house and moving in.  My wife retires sometime in the next 6  months and we move there permanently.  Actually it will probably be good for my back and knees to get away from the game.  I can get my exercise by taking walks on the beach, which stretches as far as I can see in both directions from the house.

[Shindig]

Not likely.  This is a mutual dream, a home on the beach in the Bahamas.  We have 2 acres with 100 feet of beachfront.  We just finished building the house and moving in.  My wife retires sometime in the next 6  months and we move there permanently.  Actually it will probably be good for my back and knees to get away from the game.  I can get my exercise by taking walks on the beach, which stretches as far as I can see in both directions from the house.

Other than the lack of golf, that sounds awesome. I hope it goes well for you, and congratulations on accomplishing the mutual dream.

[Tyler92488]

Hi my name is Tyler and I am addicted to golf, I am 24 hours sober and about to go relapse!

(Please note I am saying this as a joke and don't want to seem not sensitive to more serious addictions, I understand there seriousness.)

[Leftygolfer]

Funny thing in the article I can relate to, is the black mood.

I played my worst round in 5 years yesterday in a match I really wanted to play well in.  I was in such a horrid mood all day yesterday.  My family thought I was fighting with my wife or something.  I couldn't get out of the funk.  Today i feel fine but yesterday I just felt the most depressed I felt in a long time.

[newtogolf]

2 acres is enough for a  few holes or at least a driving range and chipping green.

Originally Posted by Fourputt

Not likely.  This is a mutual dream, a home on the beach in the Bahamas.  We have 2 acres with 100 feet of beachfront.  We just finished building the house and moving in.  My wife retires sometime in the next 6  months and we move there permanently.  Actually it will probably be good for my back and knees to get away from the game.  I can get my exercise by taking walks on the beach, which stretches as far as I can see in both directions from the house.

[jamo]

Funny thing in the article I can relate to, is the black mood.

I played my worst round in 5 years yesterday in a match I really wanted to play well in.  I was in such a horrid mood all day yesterday.  My family thought I was fighting with my wife or something.  I couldn't get out of the funk.  Today i feel fine but yesterday I just felt the most depressed I felt in a long time.

It's amazing how golf can do that to you. I played in a tournament last year that meant absolutely nothing to me- no money or trophy, even if I qualified for the next event I wouldn't have been able to go, I didn't know anyone else there so it's not like I was looking to impress. I ended up shooting a ninety-something, when I had just shot a 74 in my practice round the day before. I was in such a bad mood the entire rest of the day. I could have flunked out of school and gotten fired from my job on the same day and not be in that bad of a mood. Luckily I got over it the next day, but man.

[newtogolf]

It's comforting in a weird way to see you low handicappers have similar experiences from time to time.  I played last week and couldn't hit driver, irons, or putter to save my life.  I felt like I'd never played or taken a lesson and was in a foul mood when I got home.  It didn't help I drove two hours to the course and back on top of playing poorly.  Next day I went to the range and I was hitting everything perfect...go figure.  You really gotta love this game to keep playing after days like that....or be addicted.

Originally Posted by jamo

It's amazing how golf can do that to you. I played in a tournament last year that meant absolutely nothing to me- no money or trophy, even if I qualified for the next event I wouldn't have been able to go, I didn't know anyone else there so it's not like I was looking to impress. I ended up shooting a ninety-something, when I had just shot a 74 in my practice round the day before. I was in such a bad mood the entire rest of the day. I could have flunked out of school and gotten fired from my job on the same day and not be in that bad of a mood. Luckily I got over it the next day, but man.

[sacm3bill]

Here's what Larry David (Seinfeld creator) had to say about it (from http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,2082081,00.html ) :

It speaks to how boring my life is that I'm not giving up this thing that causes me such misery. Nothing else interests me like golf. Nothing. I think golf is literally an addiction. I'm surprised there's not Golf Anonymous."

[goodoldrebel]

It seems that most comments here seem somewhat proud and bragging about being so aimless in their life by rationalizing their 'addicted' to golf. Golf is artificial entertainment and the objective of the 'golf industry' is to make consumers out of the masses addicted to 'buying' golf clubs etc.  That is the true addiction about golf.-buying stuff you don't need and buying stuff for a trivial purpose.

The down side of having joe public inundate golf is that the original intent of the sport goes out the window as far as social skills etc. Anyone can be trained to play golf and with enough of the 'right kind' of practice-- play well. I've played most of my life and have been in many local and state opens etc. and I'm the first one to admit that the last thing I want to do all the time is 'play golf'. Playing golf with so much of one's spare time is a shallow and superficial existence. The cigar smoking, electric cart driving beings that have gravitated to the links have taken the athleticism out of the sport. Who wants to spend so much time being around and subject to  zeros swinging and putting with cigars in their mouth, hacking away? Am I too cynical or is it that the Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus aura of golf has evaporated into some adolescent temper tantrum nonsense ?

[ejimsmith]

Originally Posted by goodoldrebel

It seems that most comments here seem somewhat proud and bragging about being so aimless in their life by rationalizing their 'addicted' to golf. Golf is artificial entertainment and the objective of the 'golf industry' is to make consumers out of the masses addicted to 'buying' golf clubs etc.  That is the true addiction about golf.-buying stuff you don't need and buying stuff for a trivial purpose.

The down side of having joe public inundate golf is that the original intent of the sport goes out the window as far as social skills etc. Anyone can be trained to play golf and with enough of the 'right kind' of practice-- play well. I've played most of my life and have been in many local and state opens etc. and I'm the first one to admit that the last thing I want to do all the time is 'play golf'. Playing golf with so much of one's spare time is a shallow and superficial existence. The cigar smoking, electric cart driving beings that have gravitated to the links have taken the athleticism out of the sport. Who wants to spend so much time being around and subject to  zeros swinging and putting with cigars in their mouth, hacking away? Am I too cynical or is it that the Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus aura of golf has evaporated into some adolescent temper tantrum nonsense?

wow, you registered just so you can post this rambling nonsense?  pot, meet kettle...

[sacm3bill]

My Patrick57 sensors just went DefCon 5, but I'll bite...

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodoldrebel

That is the true addiction about golf.-buying stuff you don't need and buying stuff for a trivial purpose.

For me and most of the golfers I know, the far greater addiction is the game itself:  Spending too much time playing and thinking about it, spending too much emotional and psychological effort trying to improve. etc.

Quote:

The down side of having joe public inundate golf is that the original intent of the sport goes out the window as far as social skills etc.

The original intent of the sport was to get a ball into a hole. It had nothing to do with developing social skills. Granted, because of the social environments within which golf was born, there was a certain "gentlemanly" aspect to it which I am pleased has survived to some extent - but if you want to start a debate about that, you probably ought to have picked a different thread than one about golf addiction, since the two have nothing to do with each other.

Quote:

Anyone can be trained to play golf and with enough of the 'right kind' of practice-- play well.

A) What's wrong with that, and B) What does that have to do with the topic?

Quote:

The cigar smoking, electric cart driving beings that have gravitated to the links have taken the athleticism out of the sport.

For them, maybe.  That doesn't make the *sport* any less athletic. Do the beer-guzzling pot-bellied middle-aged weekend warriors who play pickup basketball take the athleticism out of the NBA?

Quote:

I've played most of my life and have been in many local and state opens etc. and I'm the first one to admit that the last thing I want to do all the time is 'play golf'.

Ok then, sounds like you don't have an addiction.  Other than that I guess I'm just not sure what point you're trying to make.

[mtsalmela80]

I think I'm more concerned with the fact that it took you 2.5 hours to play 9 holes.

Originally Posted by Topper

I worked on a report until midnight last night and so I decided to take 2.5 hours off from work this afternoon to play 9 holes.  Do I have a problem?  Now I'm a little concerned.  I should have been working....but I wanted to play golf.  I have a $%^#-load of projects to finish....but it was only 9 holes.  I ended up showering and going back to work, so I guess I'm OK...for now.

[joekelly]

When you can tell us about selling your furniture and pimping your daughter for money to play golf, only then will i agree that you are addicted.

[nevets88]

The interesting bit here is the research with pigeons. Predictable indicator of seeds distributed and pigeons were normal, less predictable intermittent distribution of seeds triggers addictive nature - like waiting for that perfect shot. The study is pretty old, but that's the first time I read about it. Yeah, we pretty much knew this anyways :-)

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[x129]

This has been know for a long time.  It is a prime reason why gambling games are so addictive to certain people.

Originally Posted by nevets88

The interesting bit here is the research with pigeons. Predictable indicator of seeds distributed and pigeons were normal, less predictable intermittent distribution of seeds triggers addictive nature - like waiting for that perfect shot. The study is pretty old, but that's the first time I read about it. Yeah, we pretty much knew this anyways :-)

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