Retirement means no pressure, no stress, no heartache . . . unless you play golf.

Perret’s joke hinges on the conventional promise of retirement as a release from deadlines, workplace conflict, and emotional strain. The punchline—“unless you play golf”—treats golf as a self-imposed arena of pressure: scorekeeping, competitiveness, frustration with one’s performance, and the emotional swings familiar to golfers. The humor comes from deflating the idyllic image of retirement by pointing out that people often recreate stress through leisure pursuits, especially ones that mimic work-like metrics and expectations. Implicitly, the line also nods to golf’s cultural association with retirees and the way a pastime can become an obsession rather than a refuge.