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This paper attempts to document through analytic material from patients that the game of golf has a wide range of intrapsychic
meanings to the patient. Because of maturation, the adult's play differs manifestly from that of the child, but like the dream the latent unconscious meaning is similarly active and should be used as a basis for comparison. Analysis demonstrated that while a game may have certain common symbolic meanings, golf has no single meaning, even for the same individual. It is proposed that the theories of the function of play, especially those emphasizing mastery of the environment, mastery of painful experience, and pleasure in function, should be uniformly extended to include play activity throughout the life of the individual, and not be limited to childhood or special categories of adults.