The performance of golf: Landscape, place, and practice in North West England

This article instigates critical work on golf in North West England by considering how golfing identities are performed in different places and landscapes. Extensive overview of the geography of the game and intensive case-study interviews and participant observation reveal an interplay between social and personal actions in relation to golfing landscapes and institutional contexts. The author argues for a performative analysis of golf, focusing on the co-constitution of identity, practice, place, and power and concludes that political economy alone is insufficient for understanding the diversity of practice and places that situate the game. © 2010 SAGE Publications.