Throughout the novel, the game of golf is a motif of fulfillment and contentment. Both of the protagonists have a deep and distinct relationship with the sport. Josephine Doyle has “grown up on a golf course, work[s] in a pro shop, and spen[ds] her days teaching proper techniques to customers” (3). The sport is a defining aspect of her life (3). Golf has always been a way for Josephine to engage with her world and community in the present, to believe in herself, and to invest in others. Being on golf courses, watching golf, and running the Golden Tee are thus forms of fulfillment for her character.

For Wells Whitaker, golf saved him from his tumultuous adolescence and allowed him to believe in himself. When Buck Lee discovered Wells at the local golf course where Wells was working as a teenager, he assumed the role of Wells’s mentor, coach, and guide. Golf offered Wells a new perspective on himself and on his future. His failing career at the start of the novel therefore triggers Wells’s waning self-confidence and heightening despair. Without golf, Wells doesn’t know who he is or what makes him happy.