For a better golf game, try poetry (it's good for the soul, too)

If you’re thinking golf is less than lame, you need to get a life, not just a Game.

Words to live by, for sure, for all of us who throw away five perfectly good hours chasing the little while ball. They’re the words of James Long Hale, a lawyer who studied poetry as an undergraduate at Dartmouth.

Hale has penned a nifty little book called “Golf Sonnets.” It isn’t long, and the book is small enough to fit in your golf bag, so when you’re waiting on the tee, you can pull it out for words of inspiration or comedic relief.

My personal favorite comes from the sonnet, The Nineteenth Hole: “… where any reason to procrastinate is welcomed as a virtue, not a vice.”

Or from The Golf Widow: “… but here’s the poor Golf Widow’s sorrow: she’ll have to see her man again tomorrow.”

He also has a rather interesting take on golf pros, but you’ll have to read that one yourself.

Hale’s affection for golf and light verse began when his father introduced him to the game and the comedic stylings of the late Stanley Holloway, a stage and film actor who was also known for his poetic monologues. Hale says there are parallels between golf and poetry

“Golf is a funny game, full of irony and contradiction,” he says. “It was started by shepherds, the lowest of the low in society, and yet is has risen to a game for the elite. Sonnets were also written for the masses, not the elites, and yet have come to be associated with elite society.”

You can find this cool little sonnet book on Amazon.com or visit golfsonnets.com to order.