On the occasion of the Open Championship, which of Her Majesty’s subjects have golf experience (not, it turns out, Her Majesty, as discussed below)?
Winston Churchill
Once a reasonably decent player, Churchill is said to have evolved into a reluctant player at best, one who considered the game “a mere adjunct to conversation.” (This may be because according to his son Randolph he was also reasonably lousy at it.) But he is attached to two ageless golf quotes — probably? The internet has basically made it so no one will ever know who truly coined a phrase ever again, but Churchill is credited with saying (if not inventing) the quote, “Like chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture.” We have no idea what a quinine pill is, but that sounds hard. And finally, Churchill delivered this perennial finalist for Greatest Golf Quote of All Time: “Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.” Jeez, when you put it that way, this sport sounds frustrating.