Let me read it for you!
There's an article by Jason Scott Deegan asking golfers why they play. Simple question. When I first read it, I thought: I could write a book on this. A million reasons must exist for why I love this game.
So I started making a list. Eighteen reasons—one for each hole. Seemed poetic.
I got stuck at twelve.
Then I got frustrated. Then I started thinking about all the reasons I shouldn't play golf. It's too expensive. It's inaccessible. I put impossible pressure on myself to improve but never seem to have the resources or time to actually get better. Why do I even care about a game I rarely play? Sometimes I feel like I need to commit, set a golf budget, stick with it—or just walk away entirely.
But I can't walk away. Even playing a few times a year, I think about golf constantly. If I had more money and time, I'd be playing more golf.
Anyways, here they are, eighteen of them, extracted from the tangled contradictions that make this game both maddening and essential — reasons why I, Johnny Michael, play golf.
1. Hitting a Fairway
There's something about the sound of a driver catching the center of the face, the feeling of the ball compressing solid and the perfect vibrations running up the clubshaft as a signal to a sweet spot in your brain. Then it soars and shapes exactly how you imagined and where you aimed. Landing one in the fairway makes for a finely pure moment.
2. Making Putts
Especially the ones that break hard sliding away from you. When you see the curve, the speed, the exact line—and then watch the ball track perfectly into the cup. It's one of the few moments in life where reality matches your imagination exactly. Let the good times roll!
3. Landing on the Green
The satisfaction of a well-executed approach shot. The ball touching down soft, checking up and finding the surface. Being on the dance floor — it's a small victory that feels enormous.
4. Meeting Great People
The starter who shares a story. The single you get paired with who becomes a friend. The regulars who welcome you. Golf attracts people who love the game's pace, its etiquette, its challenges. Some of my life long friends were made from junior golf days. Golf is a great meeting ground for the best kind of people.
5. The Microcosm of Life
You can envision the perfect shot—see it in your mind with complete clarity—and execute it flawlessly. Other times, you do everything right and get a bad bounce. Sometimes you hit a terrible shot that somehow finds its way to the green. Golf teaches you to master what you can and accept what you can't. That's not just a golf lesson… and there’s plenty more where that comes from.
6. Focus
For four hours, (somestimes longer) the only thing that matters is the next shot. When played right without phones, emails and minimal distractions. It’s just you, the course, and the challenge. Golf is a refuge that encourages complete presence and attention to the moment.
7. The Trees
The way light filters through leaves on a late afternoon round. The ancient oaks framing a fairway. A forest of towering banyans. Tall upright pines in the golden hour. The sound of wind moving through branches. Even the pesky ones that always seem to be in your way. Golf courses preserve trees in ways few other places do. They are cathedrals and museums showcasing Earth’s natural beauties.
8. The Course
The architecture, the strategy, the way a great designer uses land to create something both beautiful and challenging. I love studying how courses unfold, where hazards are placed, how greens are contoured. Every course is a work of art you get to walk through and interact with. It's nature, but manically tamed—manicured fairways, shaped bunkers, sculpted greens. There is tension between its beauty and environmental impact, but I see that as one of golf's great challenges to keep moving forward.
9. It's Up to You
No teammates to blame. No referee to argue with. Just you and your choices. The club you select, the shot you attempt, the risk you take. It’s all on you. Golf is a radically individual sport —your success or failure is entirely your own.
Making the turn…
10. Making Birds
Par streaks are fine and dandy and saving one can mean a ton. But nothing tops the feeling of making birdies. Eagles. Albatrosses! Making the birds! That's when golf goes from satisfying to exhilarating.
11. Practice
I’m motivated by the idea of self-improvement. Working hard on something and getting better. Time on the range, the putting green, the short game area—gotta appreciate a well thought out practice facility where you can just show up and put in the work. The reward for me is in the repetition and routine.
12. Finding Flow
Those rare rounds where you're not thinking, just playing. Where the swing feels natural, decisions come easily, and time disappears. Finding that perfect balance between the joy and obsession, the right rhythm and tempo, when the club feels comfortable in your hands. Flow states are hard to find in modern life but golf offers that on the regular.
13. Knocking It Close
That moment when you know, right off the club, that you've hit it perfect. The ball is tracking toward the flag like it's on a string. Then your eyes start to dart—ball to flag, flag to ball, back and forth rapidly—making the connection that the shot is dead on the pin. You're watching it fall, and your brain is lighting up inside . Even if it doesn't go in, the feeling of a shot that does exactly what you intended is pure joy. But when does it go in? Ooh baby. That's what you remember for a lifetime.
14. Hitting the Center
Solid contact. The sweet spot. That feeling when you compress the ball perfectly with a crisp iron shot and it feels like nothing—like the club passed through butter. A finely fileted divot. It's a bit of glory for the mind. I'll chase that feeling so long as I can keep swinging.
15. Going for a Walk
Four or five miles through a beautiful place. It clears my head. It's active but not exhausting. It's outdoors but not wilderness. There's something perfect about the pace of a walking round—golf is my speed. Playing is good energy in, and gives good energy out — some of my best ideas happen on a golf course.
16. The Colors
I love the color green—every shade from the first cut or from the fringe. The white sand of bunkers. The blue sky overhead. Golf courses are gorgeous palettes to soak in with your eyes. Every hole is a painting with calming energy to be soaked in.
17. Sharing the Game with Family
Watching my nephews hit a bucket of balls and their excitement when they realize they can do it. Chipping and whacking away pinecones and golf ball ice cubes at a backyard pin. The way golf spans generations and skill levels. You can play together even if you're not remotely the same caliber. It’s the game that’s the connection.
18. Witnessing Greatness
I don't love betting or drinking on the course. I'm not even that crazy about competing. But I do love seeing people do extraordinary things. Watching an era of dominance like Tiger when I was younger or Scottie now . Seeing good people find success. The records being rewritten. Plus, there’s the art that comes from the game—the course design, the photography, the films, the storytelling, the way announcers like Jim Nantz capture a moment and stamp it with their pure expression. There's so much to appreciate beyond your own score.
So that's eighteen. It took me longer than it should have to complete this list, probably because I was trying too hard to make it comprehensive. The truth is simpler: I play golf because when I'm out there, even struggling, even when my 10 handicap feels more like 15 from lack of play, even spending money I probably shouldn't—I feel more like myself than almost anywhere else. I feel alive.
The conundrum is always needing money to play. The courses I want to experience, the equipment that might help, the time required. But maybe that's part of what makes it matter. Golf isn't easy. It's also not particularly fair.
I love golf the way I like to play it: deep, calming, bond-building rounds that serve as a moral compass, a habit that keeps me fit and focused, something that helps me stay the course of a life well lived.
The answer to "why do you play golf?" probably isn't in a list at all. It's in the feeling you get being out there, the people you’re with, mixed with a little bit of the possibility that today, maybe today, everything clicks—and who knows, maybe I'll finally get a hole in one today.
