Why Links Golf is the Best Form of Golf, and a Metaphor for Life
Mark Parsinen, who died suddenly and tragically a few years ago, was friend of podcast host Michael Williams and a student of the game. Williams and Parsinen would often have conversations about how golf was like life, full of highs and lows, rewards and penalties. Williams cherishes as he watched the 150th edition of the Open Championship in St. Andrews, a town that Parsinen made his home for a number of years while he built the modern classic course Kingsbarns.
Williams loves links golf because he says it really is like life. American style parkland courses are what we’d like life to be, all manicured and perfect. American golf says that if you do good things, good things will happen. Hit it far, hit it close and you will succeed. But links golf is different. You can hit a “perfect shot” and get a disappointing or even a disastrous result. All you can do is find your ball and try again. In links golf, there are a variety of ways to reach the goal and a 25-year old and an 85-year old can make par in wildly different ways. The weather can change an easy task into an impossible one, and that is totally our of your control. Just like life, you do your best and carry on.
Listen to the full episode above, and look for more from the 19th Hole coming soon to the Morning Read Podcast Network.