Golfing Alone (with Gary Belsky)

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

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Summary

No rush, no noise, no one else on the golf course: solo golf is an entirely different game, offering physical, mental, and spiritual benefits that playing with others can't. Listen as author and former editor of ESPN The Magazine Gary Belsky and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss how golfing alone can create flow, develop physical mastery, and enhance self-awareness. Along the way, they explore what makes golf different from other sports, what it reveals about our character, and why even non-golfers may love its solo version for the lessons it imparts about life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:07.9	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Sholem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.8	Go to EconTalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.2	You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.7	Our email address is mail at econTalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:36.7	Today is March 25th, 2026, and my guest is author Gary Belski.
0:41.3	This is Gary's third appearance on the program.
0:43.5	He was last here in April of 2016, talking about the origin of sports.
0:48.9	His latest book on our topic for today is solo golf.
0:58.2	Gary, welcome back to Econ Talk. Oh my God, very glad to be here.
1:06.0	Can I ask you a question? Is there like a, do you have like a thing like Saturday Night Live has where if a host has, you know, hosted five times they get a jacket? Like, you know, I know that there have been people who have been on many more times than me, but is there a threshold in which they, you know, we become kind of part of a club? Sure. Can we make it three? Well, three. And then plus if you've won, say, the masters, you get a green jacket. Oh, yeah. So you've only got, you're halfway there.
1:28.5	You've got the three appearances.
1:31.3	We're going to talk about your book, Gary.
1:33.2	We're going to talk about golf, but really like the game itself.
1:36.5	Your book is a vehicle for deeper things, friendship, disappointment, joy, introspection,
1:44.0	meditation, contemplation. So let's begin with solo golf. What is it?
1:50.0	Solo golf is not, is what I call a, it's not a foursome, a threesome or a two-sum. It's a lonesome. I don't mean playing as a single, which is a thing in golf off, you know, I'm a, I'm a highly
2:01.5	social person. I make this point at the beginning of the book that I love playing golf because I
2:04.7	love playing with friends, present company included and nephews as well. But solo golf is the act
2:12.6	of playing golf by yourself on a course, or at least on a whole, without anyone there. And it is a, it can be a
2:21.7	transformative experience because golf, the golf industrial complex by definition wants you to go out
2:29.8	with other people. They want for almost every golf club or golf course in the world once you,
	...

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