"I must speak of the game of golf in terms that I lived and loved, not in current-day terms, which I neither understand nor can relate to. In other words, 'stack and tilt' is not a thing of beauty to me."
No April Fools joke here, the USGA managed to get the very low-profile Mickey Wright to pen one of its monthly essays about "The Game."
At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, which I am, I must speak of the game of golf in terms that I lived and loved, not in current-day terms, which I neither understand nor can relate to. In other words, “stack and tilt” is not a thing of beauty to me.
The outstanding beauty of the game of golf, I believe, is its complexity. In motion, you must be able to strike a small sphere with a two-to-four-inch block of wood or metal on the end of a 43-inch shaft while standing approximately 30 inches away from it, and do it in such a manner that the center of the clubface strikes the exact tangent point of the ball to send it in the direction chosen and with enough stored energy to send the ball a desired distance.
That, however, is but the start of the complex beauty of the game. Golf is indeed a game for patient problem solvers. The variables that need to be computed seem endless, yet within the space of 30 or 40 seconds you always come up with an answer: sometimes right, oftentimes not.
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 12:17 PM
Reader Comments (20)
"The expression, “poetry in motion” best describes a golf swing of perfect tempo, timing and balance which allows the ball to be struck dead center. When you occasionally accomplish this you’ll enjoy an unmatched physical and mental joy."
Yon article was a breath of much-needed fresh golfing air. Thank you Mickey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB11_Vwkqm8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zpzw1bwF7U
There are others.
Geoff, thanks so much for alerting us all to Mickey Wright's essay. Terrific stuff. Her ability to write about the game matches her ability to play it. She reminds me of Bobby Jones in that way. My favorite sentence is this one: Golf is indeed a game for patient problem solvers.
I had the good fortune of seeing Mickey play in person once, in 1979 in one of her last appearances on the LPGA Tour. It was at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J. She was 44 years old at the time, and she lost to 22-year-old Nancy Lopez in playoff. I can still picture her hitting a beautiful mid-iron shot to the green on the 12th hole.
thanks for the youtube links, ky!
-LK
Mickey Wright = Class Personified
Would love to know her opinion about this founders tourney concept that recently took place in AZ?
If memory holds, she won it one year and was second the next, playing against "fresher" players and playing a set of blades that looked like they may have been bought in a Chris Schenkel yard sale. Her horned-rim glasses may have been part of Mama Mabel Carter's estate.
But her swing was syrup from a gravy boat. Absolutely majestic in its simplicity. And best of all, as private as she apparently is, when dealing with folks afterward it was as if all were friends -- a true delight and one of those in-person treasures to store away.
Is the game for the manufacturers of balls and clubs? Or was it supposed to be about an impossibly difficult pursuit amidst an impossibly beautiful space?
As "thebigdad" opined (and many others over many decades) she had the greatest swing ever. The tragedy is that she lived in a time that couldn't embrace her greatest or her individuality. Here's to you, Mickey. You were the best.
Her commentary and that here reminds me of something she said once about the Game of Golf vs. the Business of Golf. I paraphrase, but Mickey Wright said she could never imagine taking advantage of the Game for personal benefit. And even most of those who have gotten the richest at the Game feel the same way to a visible extent, based on what they have given back, in time, support, and simple awareness of their good fortune. With a very few notable exceptions. Maybe only one. You can either take the money and attendant benefits and then pay (sometimes dearly) for it, the latter choice being a matter of personal preference. Or not take the money and live a private life. It's an either/or proposition, not an and/and/and/and proposition. Oh, one other thing: This would have been a great contribution to "Golf Journal" from a 5-time USGA Champion. Anyone listening in Far Hills? Thought not.
@Del: I kept waiting for Mickey Wright and Louise Suggs to say something about the Monopoly Money Classic. Maybe they did and I missed it. But I stand by my comment when Whan first started talking about honoring the Founders by having his event. Those ladies may have played for next-to-nothing on occasion in their early days, but it was a matter of necessity, not choice. That it might not have been a choice last month is no way to celebrate The Founders.
So who's ahead in Houston? Time to turn on the rerun, I reckon.