The golf swing is like a suitcase into which we are trying to pack one too many things.

Updike’s comparison frames the golf swing as an overdetermined act: players try to cram too many instructions, corrections, and ambitions into a single fluid motion. Like an overstuffed suitcase that won’t close, a swing burdened with extra thoughts—grip, stance, tempo, plane, power, fear of failure—tends to break down. The image also hints at golf’s peculiar frustration: improvement often comes not from adding more “things” but from subtracting, simplifying, and trusting a coherent sequence. In that sense, the line is both comic and diagnostic, capturing how the sport turns self-consciousness into mechanical tension.