In the last two years I’ve purged more than half of my belongings. Clothes, books, sports gear, tools, excess furniture, yearbooks, paper, electronics, toys, sports memorabilia, photos, and more odds and ends than I can count.

But yet there’s been something I haven’t used in 15 years that I’ve struggled to purge, even though I come across it every day and even though it’s taking up valuable floor space in the garage.

Golf clubs.

I haven’t played golf in 15 years and have hit the links just twice since I moved to Florida at the end of 1997. The clubs were not expensive; I bought them at the going-out-of-business sale of a local sporting goods store in 1998 for probably no more than $125.

It’s not like I once played a lot of golf, just an occasional round as a teenager. Though I’ve been around golf and lived near golf courses much of my life, it’s not a sport I ever embraced or found particularly enjoyable. If I have a spare three hours, I’d much rather run, swim, paddle, hike, or bike.

So why can’t I get rid of these golf clubs?

Maybe it’s because they represent a sport I’ve never been able to master. By parting with them, I’ll be admitting that I’ll never play passable golf, even though I already made that decision subconsciously by not playing since 2000.

There once was a time when I thought it was important to play passable golf. Twice in my twenties I started from scratch with lessons – first in Virginia and after I moved to Florida. I even co-authored a fitness book showing golfers how to train to play better golf and avoid injury. Even that didn’t inspire me to pick golf back up.

Golf is good for business and networking, I was told. Maybe that’s still true, though it seems like interest in golf has waned in the last two decades. Today’s hard-charging young and middle-aged professionals seem to prefer endurance sports like triathlon, mountain biking, and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP). Or CrossFit, yoga, and obstacle racing.

I can’t even say I’m keeping the clubs for my sons, who are at the age when they could take golf lessons. We have a driving range and teaching school around the corner, open year round. But the boys have expressed no interest in golf and, if they did, they’d need shorter clubs. A quick glance at Craigslist reveals comparable sets to mine – many comparable sets – in the $75 range. In the unlikely event I ever want another pair of clubs to replace these old sticks, I can find a cheap upgrade quickly.

It’s funny what we struggle to purge. For some it’s sentimental items. For others it’s books or mementos. Then there are the golf clubs and their equivalent, which represent another weird psychological hold, the middle ground between old hobbies and ones we never embrace.

True, you’re never too old to master a skill and if golf were on my bucket list, I’d keep the clubs. To live lean, we must curate all aspects of our lives, playing triage with our time by choosing only activities that bring us joy.

I can watch great golfers and appreciate their skills.

But devoting time to golf was never my thing.

And it never will be.

Today the golf clubs went to Goodwill.