Golf is a game of skill. It takes years of practice to even come close to perfecting it. Most people should never even attempt the game on an actual golf course without some lessons and several practice sessions on the driving range. Yet there is the strange phenomenon of the company golf tournament. This is when the novice rents clubs, drinks about 10 pints, and heads out to the first tee. What ensues does not even remotely resemble golf, and it continues for 18 holes. This never happens with other activities which require great skill and training. You never see the whole finance department head out to the ski jump for a little head to head competition. You never see members of the sales department each grab an instrument and join in a rousing performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps. But... GOLF... for some reason is different. Out they go, chopping up green and fairway, riding golf carts all over the place, and holding up play for the serious golfer. And here is the strangest thing. After it's all over... EVERYONE GETS A PRIZE!! Why!!! We do many things in life which deserve a reward. Shovel out the neighbour's driveway, clip the dog's claws, wait in a Tim Horton's Drive-thru... no prize. But if you show up half snapped to the company golf tournament, lie about your score, donate all your golf balls to mother nature, and drive your golf cart over the eighteenth green you're bound to return home with something nice for the house, a free meal, or 12 more golf balls. Go figure!