Golfing Alone (with Gary Belsky)

Uh, we're gonna talk about your book, Gary.

We're gonna talk about golf.

But really like the game itself, uh, your book is a vehicle for deeper things, friendship, disappointment, joy, introspection, meditation, contemplation.

So let's begin with Solo Golf.

What is it?

Solo Golf is not, is what I call a, it's not a foursome, a threesome, or a twosome, it's a lonesome.

[laughs]

Um, I don't mean playing as a single, which is a thing in golf.

Of, you know, I'm a, I'm a highly social person.

I make this point at the beginning of the book that I love playing golf because I love playing with friends, present company included, and, and nephews as well.

Um, but solo golf is the act of playing golf by yourself on a course, or at least on a hole, without anyone there.

Um, and it is a, it can be a transformative experience because, um, golf, the golf industrial complex by definition wants you to go out with other people.

[laughs]

They want four...

E- almost every golf club or golf course in the world wants you, wants four golfers to go out every eight to 12 minutes-

[laughs]

... as many days of the year as they possibly can.

Um, even private courses, where if you belong to a private club, especially if they're, you know, at certain times of the year, you can...

It's a little bit easier to go out on your own.

They still generally discourage it because, um, courses are meant to be shared, I think.

But courses in some ways are best enjoyed when you are playing it by yourself.

I have a line in the book, "There's no, in, in some ways there's no lonelier place in the world or emptier place in the world than a, than a golf course with nobody on it." Uh, and the second loneliest place in the world is a golf course with one person on it.

[laughs]

That's what solo golf is, playing by yourself, playing alone.