This reminds me of Don Draper's quote: "But what is happiness? It’s the moment before you need more happiness.”

Didn't read this article but I did enjoy his interview.

I think Scottie's ennui is just what we all experience at some time but with some added wrinkles.

We might ask ourselves is it all worth it as we contemplate the mountain top ahead of us. But since we've never reached the mountain top, and nor are we likely to, this remains an equation with too many unknown factors, so it stays a somewhat academic question that subsides quickly.

Scottie has been to the mountain top many times, and can see all the other peaks before him. The equation of the meaning of life is more fully solved for him, which just puts him closer to the solution - that there is no answer.

Golf itself could be a factor. There's perhaps nothing as meaningless as hitting a little ball into a hole in the ground with a stick. When you've achieved fabulous, generational wealth in your twenties from something so insanely frivolous, how can you see the world and your place in it as meaningful?

Also, like many pro golfers Scottie is strongly religious. Religious beliefs are, by necessity, completely faith based and can never be proved. Succeeding wildly in other areas of life while the most important area of all of your life remains stubbornly concealed behind a curtain must be challenging.