Golf is not a game, it's bondage. It was obviously devised by a man torn with guilt, eager to atone for his sins.

Murray’s line is a comic inversion of golf’s genteel reputation. By calling it “bondage,” he frames the sport as a self-imposed captivity: players willingly submit to frustration, repetition, and exacting standards that rarely yield lasting satisfaction. The image of a guilt-ridden inventor “eager to atone” suggests golf functions like penance—an endless cycle of small failures and occasional reprieves that keeps devotees returning. The exaggeration also satirizes the moral seriousness golfers sometimes attach to a leisure activity, implying that the game’s difficulty and obsession-inducing nature can feel less like play and more like ritualized suffering.