Most of us spend the day trying to do things faster.
We answer emails while eating lunch, check the weather before leaving the house, squeeze errands into the fifteen minutes between appointments and somehow still wonder where the day went.
Then there’s golf.
A round of golf takes four hours or more, and there isn't really a shortcut. You have to walk from one shot to the next. You wait for the group ahead. You stand over a putt for a little too long. You spend several minutes looking for a ball you were absolutely certain was going to be easy to find.
And strangely enough, that's part of what makes it so enjoyable.
One of the best things about a round is how easy it is to get pulled into what's happening around you.
You notice that the course looks completely different than it did a few weeks ago. You realize the temperature has dropped since the first tee. You hear someone laughing a few holes over. You stop to talk to another member you haven't seen in a while.
None of these things are particularly important.
That's kind of the point.
Golf gives you a few hours where you don't need to be productive. You don't need to accomplish anything beyond getting around the course and, ideally, putting a decent score on the card.
There is also something about walking 18 holes with someone that makes conversation pretty easy.
You don't have to sit down and plan to catch up. You just start talking.
You talk about the round, then work, then the weekend, then something completely unrelated. Someone tells a story. Someone remembers something that happened years ago. You get to the next tee and realize you've been talking for twenty minutes.
It's one of the reasons golf has always been such a social game.
The course gives you somewhere to go, but it also gives you time to spend with the people you're with.
This might be the biggest lesson golf has to offer:
Not every shot will be good. Not every round will be your best. Sometimes the weather isn't perfect, your swing isn't cooperating and the scorecard is better left face down.
You still had a few hours outside.
You still saw friends.
You still got away from whatever was waiting for you at home or work.
And sometimes that's enough.
Golf doesn't necessarily make the day slower. It just gives you a reason to stop rushing through it.
So the next time you have a tee time, don't worry too much about getting through the round.
You've got four hours. Enjoy them.