Tattoos today are popular
With players in many sports;
Arms and more are seen adorned
On fields as well as courts.
Though I’ve not spotted a single one
Golfers must have them too;
As to what they illustrate
I haven’t got a clue — do you?
In any case, I’m thinking
If I were making the call,
Instead of marking up my arms
I’d rather tattoo the ball.
Leon S White, PhD
Tattooed
October 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
A New Substack Post – The Golf Widow in Verse
May 13, 2025 by Leave a Comment
I’m using my Substack site to publish longer pieces about the poetry of golf. “The Golf Widow in Verse” is my second post. My poetry and shorter golf poetry pieces will continue to appear on this blog. Also note that the blog already contains more than 260 entries. If you have time, I hope you will find some interesting poetry among them.
Here is the link: https://golfpoet.substack.com/p/the-golf-widow-in-verse?r=zljx
Birdie Flu
February 11, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Newspaper articles about the bird flu and the controversy regarding vaccinations (shots) got me thinking how these concerns might relate to golf. Here is the result:
Birdie Flu
I’ve got the birdie flu
And it's killing me.
No birdie two’s
Or four’s or three.
It starts with driving
Left and right
Birdie chances
Out of sight.
Second shots
Become the test
Pushes and pulls
Lead to pars at best.
With pitches and chips
They’re never near
Leaving putts that even
Good putters fear.
If you catch this bug
And you’re tied in knots
The only prescription
Find better shots.
Leon S White, PhD
Have You Met Him
March 15, 2023 by 1 Comment
Thanks for visiting again or for the first time. As you may know (from reading this Blog) I’ve recently published a book called If Golf Balls Could Talk – Collected Golf Poems (available on Amazon). Here is a poem from the book that tells a familiar story:
HE TALKS A GOOD GAME
He talks a good game
You know the guy
He judges each swing
With a critical eye.
He talks a good game
Awash with advice
He’s off to the races
When he sees you slice.
He talks a good game
He studies the pros
He is eager to tell you
All that he knows.
He talks a good game
Can he turn a phrase
He talks a good game
But it’s not how he plays.
He talks and he talks
With eyeballs that glisten
But even the duffers
No longer listen.
If you’ve met this guy, you are welcome to share the experience in the comments section.
Frets
February 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This website is now a little more than 10 years old. It includes more than 200 Posts with poems. You are most welcome to search on popular golf topics or click on one of the many categories in the list on the right. (I particularly encourage Australians to click on Australia).
Though I am now playing more guitar than golf, I intend to keep writing golf-related poems when ideas arise that encourage poetic responses. And for me, some of the best poem ideas involve playing around with a word or words. The following four-liner is an example.
Frets
A gigging guitarist
Fingers over frets;
A gambling golfer
Frets over bets.
Leon S White, PhD
P.S. Right now Amazon (USA) has my book, Golf Course of Rhymes, at over 30% off. Best price I’ve ever seen!
Women and Golf, 1914
April 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment
In the early 20th Century, for the most part, golf was a men’s game. One famous amateur golfer/writer of the times, Horace Hutchinson, went so far as to assert, “Constitutionally and physically women are unfitted for golf.”
I recently came across a old golf book, Rhymes of a Duffer (1914), by Philip Q. Loring. Loring apparently was as odds with Hutchinson. At least he was willing to let a woman into the conversation:
So, I have to confess she was quite apropos
When the maiden remarked as she started to go;
“Excepting direction and distance, I’d say,
That drive was as good as I’ve seen today.”
What’s Hot
February 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been away from the New England cold. Now I’m back and still focused on temperature.
What’s Hot that Matters
Golf Digest is out with its “hot list,” clubs that will not lag.
A list of drivers, irons and such, the hottest swinging sticks.
But my concern, at 82, is not with the heat of my bag;
It’s my internal heat that needs to remain at 98.6!
Leon S White, PhD
He’s Back
January 16, 2018 by Leave a Comment
With all the pointless talk about what Tiger might or might not do now that he’s completed one tournament, I couldn’t resist chiming in.
He’s Back
The new golf season,
Starting kind of strange.
That incoming Hawaiian missile –
A Tiger launch from his driving range.
Leon S White, PhD
Narin Golf Club – 1986
December 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment
I just looked at the clubhouse pictured on the Narin Golf Club’s website. It is much larger and more extensive than the one I remember from a family golf trip to Scotland in 1986. Then, if I remember correctly, it was just a single room with a long counter and an elderly proprietor to welcome us. This recollection inspired the four lines below. (Many of today’s golfers may find it hard to relate to the word picture I have drawn.)
Narin Golf Club, Scotland – 1986
The old proprietor ‘s greeting
On a windy cloudy day;
Nothing fancy, nothing false,
You couldn’t wait to play.
Leon S White, PhD
The Agonies of Golfing
November 7, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Edgar A Guest, born in England in 1881, worked for the Detroit Free Press for more than 60 years. He was also a popular poet and a golfer. In part, he used his poetry to agonize over his inability to play better golf. In December 1921 Guest published a poem called “Golf Experience” in Golfers Magazine. Here are a few excerpts.
I’ve golfed throughout another year,
Drifting snows will soon be here,
And now I view with discontent
This season that so soon was spent;
Once more I dubbed the whole year through,
Nor did I make an eighty-two.
……….
I blundered all through early June,
I could not use my trusty spoon,
But hope still stayed–ere summer fell
I knew I should be playing well
……….
August still found me keeping on
With scores unfit to look upon
……….
The same old dub that was am I,
I don’t improve howe’er I try;
Lessons and practice all in vain,
With me the hook or slice remain
But still to hope I fondly cling,
I know I’ll play the game next spring.
Proses can’t compete with poetry when it comes to extolling the agonies of playing the game and the never-ending hope of improvement.
Golf Course of Rhymes 
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