Golf as Religion: The Functional Approach

Please be advised. This page does not reproduce the story or article in full. The full story or article is contained inRoybob’s Book on Golf: The Hucks, A Golfer’s Divine Comedy, and a Religious Philosophy of Golf.

The Golf Gods: Towards a Religious Philosophy of Golf

Golf as Religion: The Functional Approach

Some may think that the portrayal of Golf as a religion trivializes life and people’s experience with God.  Non-golfers, in particular, may not understand the metaphors of Golf for life, and they may find talk of a Golf God or gods to be just plain silly.  While I can understand their lack of enthusiasm for Golf as a religion, I do not agree.

The psychologist Erich Fromm (1900-1980) defined religion as “any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion.”[1]   Golf, as I have tried to argue, provides its players with an object of devotion (God or Energy-itself in a quest for beauty) and a framework for orienting their lives.  As Mark Frost writes, expressing the view of Francis Ouiment, Golf encourages “physical and mental discipline, ethical rectitude, and, in order to excel [demands] skills, resolve, and courage” that serve humans “superbly in any walk of life.”[2]   Swayed by the value of beauty, golfers cultivate responsibility, decorum, integrity, adeptness, confidence, and other important virtues

Moreover, Fromm contends, “the study of man permits us to recognize that the need for a common system of orientation and for an object of devotion is deeply rooted in the conditions of human existence.”[3]  Humans want to make sense of their universe, and religion provides the means by which that can be done.  If searching golfers can find in Golf “a frame of orientation and an object of devotion,” then it qualifies as a religion.

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The full version of this story or article is contained inRoybob’s Book on Golf: The Hucks, A Golfer’s Divine Comedy, and a Religious Philosophy of Golf.