Rhetoric of Golf

I love golf. So the first vision that came to mind when I was told I had to choose a theme for my VizCom semester portfolio, was a compelling landscape with a distant flag waving against a backdrop of lush green. But I worried that it would not be appropriate. Then I realized that my reluctance to embrace the theme was grounded in past experience, and that the game of golf could be, in itself, an analogy for rhetoric. For what is golf, other than an artful attempt at persuading the ball to go in the hole? Golf is steeped in ethos, pathos, and especially logos (pun intended). And the selection and deflection of tools, the equipment chosen to loft, roll, fade, or draw the ball toward its intended target, emulates those of the writer choosing the right approach to persuade an audience, to avoid the hazards, to score the ever-elusive hole in one. Perhaps this is a way for me to fulfill my dream of a hole in one. If I cannot do it in real life, perhaps I can do it visually, virtually, rhetorically in ENGL 853 at Clemson University.