Think what you will about Hank Williams Jr.’s disparaging remarks about the Obama-Boehner pairing and ESPN’s reaction to those remarks, Hank at the very least displayed a gross lack of understanding of golf.
I’m only half-joking. The underlying assumption of his, er, critique is that playing 18 holes together is supposed to result in a meeting of minds on something other than, say, club selection. As subsequent history demonstrates, unless Pollyanna is in your foursome, this isn’t likely to happen.
No, the salutary effect of playing golf with someone of diametrically opposed views is that, for four hours at least, everyone behaves better than they do most of the rest of the time. That’s why it’s “a gentleman’s game” – a description that naturally invites mockery when tied, across the board, to players rather than the game itself.
And as any seasoned golfer can attest, this really works.
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