Golf is the only sport I can think of that you can get better without practice.
For instance, over the winter, when Im not playing, just thinking about golf, watching it on T.V., and talking about it with others, has led to a better first time out of the box round.
However, once that initial flow is over, then the golf mythos comes to be. Practice, like going to church for some (get the dichotomy there?), takes us through the cycle.
Many of us need church to center us, so we can go back out into the world the rest of the week.
Practicing golf prepares us for the round many of us playing on those Sunday mornings.
Funny, the symmetry here for the Dalai and me, golf is a meditation, and hence, our church.