Is golf really necessary?

In the preface to The heart of a goof, Wodehouse complains that the reviews of The clicking of Cuthbert all started "I'm not a golfer myself, but..." and proposes that anyone reviewing the present book should be required to put their golf handicap in brackets at the end, so that readers would know how seriously to take the review.

Obviously, Wodehouse doesn't seriously intend that his stories should be read only by golfers (he does this for a living, after all), but do you think you really have to be a golfer to enjoy the golf stories? (I'm not, and I do.) Do you enjoy them more because you play golf?

Resurrecting this thread to say: I was dipping back into a few of the golf stories last week and love them, despite the fact that I pick up a golf club once every five years to make an idiot of myself by going round the crazy golf or putting green in about 153.

I should think Wodehouse-loving golfers probably get something extra out of the stories that I don't, though.

ETA correct grammar.
Note to self: don't post before the coffee kicks in

I am not a golfer, and I have not read the golf stories, yet.
I confess that, because I don't golf, I am a bit reluctant to read them. Perhaps I should try.....?

I love the golf stories, and I am definitely not a golfer. In any case, I think a lot of the golfing terms are so old fashioned, even real golfers have a hard time knowing what P.G.'s referring to.

does Wii golf count? :)

Can you imagine what Jeeves would say if Bertie bought a Wii?

"I would not advise it, sir."

I'd completely forgotten starting this thread...

In the meantime, I've spent half a day at a local golf club being shown the basics (a "team-building" excursion from work) and I've been introduced to Wii Golf by my 12 year old nephew - I'm still almost as mystified about golf as before. I don't think either experience has added significantly to my enjoyment of the stories.

I can imagine a scenario in which young Thos. gets a Wii for his birthday, and Bertie has a play with it and rather enjoys it. Probably it would end up with Aunt Dahlia staking a silver cow-creamer on the outcome of a Wii-game between young Thos. and the Knife-and-Boot boy...

I hate golf, but I adore PG Wodehouse's golf stories.

I think perhaps PGW's own passion for the game more than compensates for the reader's lack of knowledge or enthusiasm for it. The title story of The Clicking Of Cuthbert has to be one of PGW's very best and funniest short stories.

>9 widdersbel: "I think perhaps PGW's own passion for the game more than compensates for the reader's lack of knowledge or enthusiasm for it."

I think you're right - a good writer who truly cares about their subject can make just about anything interesting to almost anybody.

I prefer not to fish, ever, and found "The Compleat Angler" to be an interesting specimen of writing from a certain time. But only an angler is going to get an emotional vibe going with that book as a recognition develops. I do golf, however, and so what's lost on the rounds is brought right by the returns. Of course the experience of reading Wodehouse having fun with a game he loved is going to have a deeper resonance with fellow lovers of the game.

Golf (other than lofting balls into woods or into the waters off Far Rockaway, for stress relief) is pretty much useless.

Basketball, trail running, football (ie American Football), MMA, and even bar fights, are far superior sports.

>12 Sandydog1:
I'm sure this thread must be on its way to some sort of record: 12 messages in just over seven years!