December 29, 2025
Mulligans beat metrics
Golfing Is Not Rowing
Stop rowing your golf game: keep it fun, get a coach, ditch the scorecard
TLDR: The essay argues creative work is like golf—chaotic and mulligan-friendly, not a smooth grind. Commenters split: some reject scorekeeping to keep joy alive, others swear by coaching and fundamentals, and a third group says even “smooth” sports aren’t smooth, making the analogy the real battleground.
The essay says creative work is more like golf than rowing—few big swings, chaotic outcomes, and plenty of mulligans. And the comments? Instant clubhouse drama. One camp is yelling “keep it fun!” with user illusive4080 flexing their rebel card: no scorecards, extra shots, and zero obsession—claiming scratch golfers secretly hate the game. Another camp claps back with “technique or bust” stories. Runner-turned-golfer creaghpatr tried brute force practice 4–5 days a week and only started improving after hiring a coach—and got worse first. That’s the spicy twist: progress can feel like failure before it clicks.
Then the pedants rolled up to the tee box. huhkerrf insists even supposed “smooth” sports like bodybuilding aren’t smooth at all—sometimes you lift less for months—which undercuts the essay’s neat analogy. Meanwhile, kayo_20211030 brings the memes: if 65–75 swings per round were real, “I’d die a very happy person,” and five hours is “too long to torture oneself.” ptzolov lands the sober take: whether it’s golf, rowing, or learning a language, effort without fundamentals just cements bad habits. On writing, the crowd nods: daily grind helps, but the author’s jab at NaNoWriMo hits—sometimes the first 90% is thinking, not typing. Verdict from the peanut gallery: take the mulligan, hire the coach, and for the love of joy, maybe stop keeping score.
Key Points
- •Activities like rowing have linear progress; golf is non-linear and sensitive to initial conditions.
- •Golf involves coarse actions with limited swings, making fine incremental adjustments ineffective within a round.
- •Mulligans (do-overs) are valuable in chaotic processes where small steps cannot fix major errors.
- •Daily writing programs (e.g., NaNoWriMo) can mislead; much of writing involves planning and research before drafting.
- •Creative work often resembles golf: phases require distinct strategies, and brute-force effort alone is insufficient.