Why do people play golf? The perfect 90 second explanation of James Bond

By means of:

November 2, 2024

Sean Connery and Kevin Costner during a 1998 golf tournament in La Quinta, California.

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Why do people play golf? What do you think is the main attraction? What does it do for you?

So begins an interview segment with the late Sean Connery, posted on Twitter by Jamie Kennedy earlier this week. As James Bond, Connery starred in perhaps the most iconic scene of golf in cinema history: The Golden Fleece by Goldfinger. As Sean Connery, he grew to love the game so much that when he retired from acting in 2007, he started playing almost every day.

“Retirement is just too much fun,” he said at the time. Daniel Craig, the modern-day Bond, added the following upon his death: “Wherever he is, I hope there is a golf course.”

To Connery’s answer:

“Well, when you play golf, you can’t honestly think or do anything else while you’re playing,” he says. That’s a good start: golf is intentionally immersive, in a way that few things in the modern world are meant to be.

“I think this is the most revealing game,” he adds with an asterisk: “I don’t know if it’s a game. it is something other than a game; I couldn’t define it. But it is obsessive and revealing. And a very healthy balancing factor, I think. Certainly for me.”

I’m not sure “obsessive” is all a good thing, but it’s clear he means “revealing” as something positive.

“And it’s also one of the few games in the world that still has dignity as a game,” he adds. The interviewer suggests that golf has class. “No doubt about it,” Connery nods in agreement. (Although that doesn’t mean he’s above frustration — “But of course,” he says, when asked if he’s losing his temper.)

My favorite moment comes when the interviewer interjects (unnecessarily, I might add) to share the lament that, if he’s still struggling with a play by the time he hits the back nine, he’ll be tired and irritated.

“Well, you’ve got to find a way to close the face of the club,” says Connery with a trademark chuckle. It’s very golf to reflexively give swing advice. But this also seems to serve as pragmatic life advice. You know the problem. There’s no point in complaining; time to find a way to the solution. Simple, logical, satisfying. It sounds easy when he says it like that.

“It’s endless,” Connery adds, about golf, presumably the practice of golf. “And as Jack Nicklaus says: it’s an unfair game and you have to accept that. It’s just like life that way.

“It’s also a game where you can cheat. It’s the easiest game in the world to cheat. And the only one suffering is you. Because you know. And you can’t unknow it.”

In summary, golf is compelling. It’s revealing. It’s obsessive. It has dignity. It’s endless and it’s unfair. And it’s easy to cheat, but when you do, you punish yourself. In golf you can’t hide. You can’t know.

So go play this weekend, gang. Make sure you find a way to close that club sheet.

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