After all those decades of work and responsibility, retirement should be a welcome period of rest and relaxation, a time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Unfortunately, that "rest and relaxation" often turns out to be more a burden than a blessing. Unprepared for the vast amount of idle time at their disposal, too many retirees find themselves without direction, without purpose, without pleasure.

Author Robert Faber urges retirees to use golf as therapy, proposing the game--with its competitive stimulation and social opportunities--as a fulfilling alternative to excessive unstructured...