"Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself"
About this Quote
The intent is disarmingly practical. Sheen isn’t romanticizing the game; he’s naming its mechanics. In golf, the course doesn’t rush you, a defender doesn’t shove you, and you can’t blame a teammate. The silence between shots becomes a mirror. Your tempo, your ego, your impatience, your need to “make up” for a mistake - those are the forces that actually shape the scorecard.
The subtext is accountability with nowhere to hide. “Against yourself” suggests a private contest between the person you think you are and the person you become when things go slightly wrong: one bad drive, then the urge to swing harder, then the spiral. It’s also a gentle dig at the human habit of outsourcing failure to conditions, luck, or other people.
Context matters: golf’s culture prizes restraint, etiquette, and control - a performance of calm that’s often at odds with what’s happening internally. Sheen’s sentence catches that tension cleanly. It’s not motivational; it’s diagnostic.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Sheen, Martin. (2026, January 17). Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/anybody-who-plays-golf-will-tell-you-that-you-67444/
Chicago Style
Sheen, Martin. "Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/anybody-who-plays-golf-will-tell-you-that-you-67444/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/anybody-who-plays-golf-will-tell-you-that-you-67444/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.




