The Niyama of Contentment

There is a particular kind of suffering that is unique to golf, and it has nothing to do with a bad swing or a difficult course. It is the suffering of the round that is never quite enough. The round where the front nine was solid but the back nine unraveled. The round where the score was good but not as good as last week. The round where everything came together on the range and then quietly fell apart on the first tee. Every golfer knows this feeling; the persistent, nagging sense that the game just delivered something slightly less than what was needed, and that somewhere just ahead, in the next round or the next practice session or the next season, the game that was always possible will finally arrive. That feeling has a name in yoga philosophy, and it is the absence of Santosha.