Unique to the Game of Golf: A Competition Among Friends

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus & Gary Player, with Augusta
National Golf Club chairman Billy Payne, preparing, yet
again, to open the 2014 Masters Tournament with their
ceremonial tee shots.

We’ve always wanted to beat each other; we’ve never hidden that. When we did win, we congratulated the other. When we lost, we congratulated the other. 

Gary Player, on his lifelong relationship with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer

I've been fretting about the Star Fort Ladies Golf Association spring tournament.  Well, actually, I've been fretting about the pairings.  It's a team event and I'm still not entirely recovered from my shoulder surgery.  My swing's a bit stiff.  I tire easily.  I'm not going to make much of a partner.

There's More to Golf Than Winning!

I know! I know! I can hear it as I write!  We can't play golf if we don't have a positive attitude, if we don't bring the I can do this -- I can beat you to a bloody pulp attitude to every round we play and keep that attitude tattooed inside our eyelids from the first drive to the last putt.  Anything less makes us losers, condemns us to a miserable game of mediocre golf.

Solheim Cup Team USA, 2011

Let's set that chest-beating, raw-meat-ripped-off-the-bone-in-chunks attitude aside for a few minutes.  Don't abandon it.  Don't deny it.  Just set it aside.  We'll come back to it.