However, he says his progress stalled when he began the process of improving his swing plane. "It's been more difficult to do than I thought," says Young. "But everything about this game gets harder. It's an evil game, full of anguish."
An uninhibited stage performer, Young admits to a darker, much more intense persona on the course. "Golf makes me totally manic, which I've never been about the drums. I get worked up on the golf course. It's not good.
"I've had some mild stage fright, but that first tee in a tournament is way more intense than that. When you go on stage, people are cheering, adrenaline is going, and that's OK, because I can hit the drums as hard as I want. But on the first tee, you're alone, it's quiet, they announce your name, and you can hear your heart thumping. It's scarier in front of 12 people than in front of 20,000."
Putting his game on public display is also difficult for Gill, a lifelong golfer whose Index has been as low as plus-1. A few years ago Gill shot 62 at Graystone, outside Nashville, setting the course record, and he plays often with pros such as John Daly and Loren Roberts.
"I've never been uncomfortable performing with the guitar," says Gill, "but in golf I can feel, OK, Mr. Should Have Been a Pro Golfer, let's see what you can do. At the same time, though I'd never say it out loud, I feel like on a given day I can play with those guys on the tour."
‘I've had mild stage fright, but that first tee in a tournament is way more intense than that.’-- Adrian Young, drummer, No Doubt
With such high standards, Gill is bedeviled by a quick temper. "There are nights I want to throw my guitar, wondering why it won't come any easier," he says. "But it's not as maddening as golf. Nothing is. In golf, probably the real reason I get mad is just insecurity. You want to prove to people that you're better than you're showing. I went to see a sport psychologist [Dr. Dick Coop] about it, and he had an interesting spin. He said that unlike most people, I live in an unrealistic world, where the adulation is abnormal. He told me, 'I think it's OK for you to beat yourself up a little.' "
It's also likely musicians bring a heightened aesthetic appreciation to golf, as well as a capacity to express it.
"I love playing with Tommy Lee," says Adrian Young. "After he hits a good shot, he'll go, 'Yeah!' really, really loud. I've never seen anything like it."
"Musicians especially understand it's kind of a sacred thing with golf," says Graham Nash, who was introduced to the game by Stephen Stills in the '70s. "As a musician, you're always trying to touch the flame, get closer to perfection. So when you play something and Neil Young looks at you and says, 'That's good,' it's like you've attained a universal truth. And that's what a good golf shot is. At that moment, life was perfect. So, of course, you've got to keep doing it. It's insanely zen."
Despite all the cultural obstacles and political baggage, previously disaffected artists eventually found their way to the game and were captured by its bedrock pleasures: the surroundings, the companionship, the ball flying through the air.
"It's so unbelievably, fantastically ironic that there are so many golf freaks among rock 'n' rollers," says Mick Fleetwood. "And it's wonderful."
"I'm happy so many musicians are playing," says Stills, a member at Bel-Air. "I think it becomes a better game because of us, and better because the new guard in golf has let us in. All that stuff that for a long time had me not interested in playing--the race stuff and the politics--there's a lot less now. Sure, some members still don't want to play with a garrulous guy like me, but basically you find out everyone's the same on the golf course. You know, 'Let's go hit the next shot.' "
Yes, the music world has made golf cooler. After all, more and more of the coolest people play.
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