Why do people play golf? James Bond's perfect 90-second explanation

By:

November 2, 2024

Sean Connery and Kevin Costner at a 1998 golf tournament in La Quinta, Calif.

Getty Images

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

So begins an interview snippet with the late Sean Connery, posted to Twitter by Jamie Kennedy earlier this week. As James Bond, Connery starred in arguably golf’s most iconic scene in cinematic history — The Golden Fleece from Goldfinger. As Sean Connery he grew to love the game so much that, when he gave up acting in 2007, he started to play nearly every day.

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

To Connery’s answer, then:

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

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

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

“And also it’s one of the few games in the world that’s still got dignity, as a game,” he adds. The interviewer suggests that wave hasclass. “No question,” Connery nods in agreement. (Though that doesn’t mean he’s above frustration — “But of course,” he says, asked whether he loses his temper.)

My favorite moment comes when the interviewer interjects (unnecessarily, I’d add) to share the lament that, if he’s still battling a slice by the time he hits the back nine, he’ll get tired and irritated.

“Well, you’ve gotta find a way to close the face of the club,” Connery says with a signature chuckle. It’s very golf to reflexively offer swing advice. But this also seems to double as pragmatic life advice. You know the problem. No use 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, of golf, presumably the pursuit of. “And, as Jack Nicklaus says, it’s an unfair game and you have to accept that. It’s like life in that way.

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

To summarize, then: golf is immersive. It’s revealing. It’s obsessive. It has dignity. It’s endless, and it’s unfair. And it’s easy to cheat — but if you do, you’re punishing yourself. In golf, there’s no hiding. You can’t unknow.

So get out and play this weekend, gang. Just make sure you find a way to close that club face.

“>