Editor’s Note How Aristotle Can Lower Your Score

EDITOR’S NOTE HOW ARISTOTLE CAN HELP LOWER YOUR SCORE AND TRANSFORM HOW YOU PERFORM ON THE COURSE

Aristotle was interested in the question: how should one live? His answer: seek true happiness. But what does he mean by this? Some people might think that true happiness consists of doing things they enjoy, like taking an exotic vacation or playing 18 at Pebble Beach.

But Aristotle tells us that happiness can’t be achieved through fleeting feelings of bliss. In fact, he believed that happiness isn’t about how we feel at all.

Instead, he believed that happiness consists of our overall achievement in life. Good and bad fortune, which is largely out of our control, also plays a role. But Aristotle believed that we can increase our happiness by developing good character.

How do we do this? He tells us that we need to “feel the right kind of emotions at the right times” which will help us behave well, develop good character, and achieve a good life.

This can also be applied on the course. Maybe you’ve seen some epic club tosses. Perhaps you’ve even whipped your five iron into a lake in a fit of rage or sent your wedge spinning into a tree after chunking a chip.

Negative feelings like these lead us to act poorly and develop bad character, which will lead to unhappiness both off and on the course.

So that’s the bad news. The good news: you can make your own choice about how you choose to play. You can choose to feel the right kind of emotions — e.g., happiness, calmness, gratitude, and respect — which will help you behave well and achieve a well-played game.

And while this might not knock ten shots off your score, you will have developed good character and achieved true happiness both on and off the course, and that, as Aristotle would say, is the whole point of philosophy and the whole point of the game.

Aristotle also tells us that virtues are good character traits while vices are bad traits. Think about it. If you’re quick to anger, take no responsibility for your actions, and lack kindness, empathy and respect for others, you will never achieve true happiness or a good life.

The same holds true with golf because if you’re quick to blame your instructor for messing up your swing, become angry when you shank a shot, and are impatient with the pace of play of other players, you will never achieve true happiness as you play or fully master your game.

This might seem like just a bunch of inspirational, self-help stuff. But Aristotle believed that people need to be able to live together well with others in a wellorganized society, and true happiness, he tells us, can only be achieved by interacting well with others in a wellordered political state.

The same can be applied to golf because true happiness and mastery of the game can only be achieved by interacting well with others and simply living by the rules of etiquette—e.g., respect for fellow players, respect for the course, and respect for the game—and let’s face it: living and playing well with others is what golf (and life) is all about.

So what’s the takeaway? Aristotle would say that to live and play well both on and off the course, we should seek true happiness by feeling the right emotions (kindness, gratitude, empathy, and respect) which will lead us to behave well, develop good character, and achieve a life well-lived and a game well-played.

Enjoy your walk,

Suzy Evans, J.D., Ph.D.

CALIFORNIA GOLF + TRAVEL

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