expression
BOOKS
AGONIZING AND JOYFUL In golf, writer finds a complex life partner by STEVE BORNHOFT
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allahassean Jay Revell’s 18-chapter golf book is more than an appreciation for the game. It is an homage, but as sincere as it is, the tribute is not overdone. Understand that for Revell, golf is not just a pastime or a competition — over time, he has come strongly to favor the former — but instead a lifesaving, wisdomimparting, restorative life partner with a strong connection to the player’s soul. His clubs come to be as friends with whom he shares histories compiled from tee to green. He has a hard time letting them go. Revell describes golf as “silly, agonizing, painstaking, excruciating and embarrassing,” but also “joyful, wondrous, exhilarating, life-changing and fulfilling.” Ultimately, he gives the game a warm and unconditional embrace. The book caused me to reflect on the best shots I have ever made, the best holes I have played, the most congenial foursomes I have been a part of versus nightmarish rounds easily recalled. In that, Revell has achieved a mean trick like stopping a bunker shot on a downslope. “My relationship with golf is symbiotic,” Revell writes. “If you remove it from me, you remove part of me and I’m afraid of what I might seek to fill that void.” Symbiosis implies a relationship of mutual benefit. What, then, has Revell done for the game? He is a virtuous player who has given his sport his book.
98
May–June 2021
TALL AHASSEEMAGA ZINE.COM
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Golf enthusiast Jay Revell, seen here on a green at the Capital City Country Club in Tallahassee, respects his game of choice as a teacher of life lessons.
