When he's told the quality set of clubs are in fact not mine but borrowed from a friend, the St Kilda star sees his chance to land a short jab. If you can't play golf, he argues, you may as well look like you can.

Goddard, of course, doesn't have to worry about looking like he can play. He can play golf, and does so exceedingly well.

We each grab a bucket of 40 balls and trot over to the outdoor range hidden among the gum trees and putting greens. It's a serene setting for a peaceful 18 holes of golf, a curling entrance leading to a picturesque and pretty clubhouse.

Goddard is a member at Yarra Yarra, located close to the Saints' Moorabbin headquarters.

Goddard sets up his gear and starts hitting balls. He is creaming them, targeting the manufactured slopes set at 120m, 180m, and beyond.

Goddard usually ventures to Yarra Yarra about twice a week to sharpen his skills. He has tested his skills at courses all over the world, and is playing off a handicap of two. On this day, I'm his guest at the members-only club.

Every so often between swings, the silence is broken with easy conversation, and Goddard makes his enthusiasm for the sport clear.

"Golf is the best mental release I get away from football," he says.

"I appreciate it now more than I did because it's a thinking man's sport. I love it because it's the most challenging sport in the world to play consistently and, when you do play consistent golf, it's just so satisfying."

While Goddard consistently and cleanly strikes his yellow golf balls off neat patches of grass, his guest is struggling. The little bit of practice I had done the night before at another driving range hadn't helped too much, and I'm spraying them everywhere.

At one point, after collecting a nice chunk of grass with the driver and skewing it to the right, I ask Goddard what one thing I should be focusing on.

With his subtle sense of humour that quickly becomes evident, he laughs, telling me he "wasn't really watching, mate!"

Thankfully, he wasn't. Goddard does say, though, that golf is an extremely technical sport and that he still hasn't quite mastered it.

"Early on in my golf career, I had trouble closing out rounds of golf because I got too nervous and I would just choke," he says.

"There have been plenty of times I've come to the last two or three holes and then it gets to me, and mentally I didn't know how to deal with it.

"They say that in golf, it's 30 per cent talent and 70 per cent between the ears, and I guess that's not too dissimilar to footy - you can have all the talent in the world and do nothing with it.

"Golf is pretty similar - I get more nervous over a short putt for birdie to shoot under par then I did having a shot at goal in front of 100,000 people on grand final day."

That says a lot about his self-confidence on the footy field. Watch him play and it seems there's nothing he can't do; his competitive spirit defines him as a footballer.

Read the full story in this week's edition of the AFL Record, available at all grounds