I want to set the record straight before I begin. I am not Tiger Woods. I have yet to play a whole game of golf without being completely distracted by racing the carts around the course. Golf to me is a lot like watching baseball, I just don’t do it. Because the golf course has taken over the restaurant in terms of the “perfect place to discuss business” I decided a little while ago to try and learn the sport.
A good friend of mine took me to a driving range and watched as I tried to hit the ball straight for an hour. He would give me pointers and even held in his laughter as I would completely whiff and not hit the ball at all. I was already upset that these places called driving ranges had no carts to race so you can only imagine how excited I was when we left. Flash forward to about two months ago. I was on vacation in Hawaii with my wife, and told her I was going to take a lesson. After the initial shock she watched as I walked down to the course in full basketball attire.
When I went to the front desk to meet my personal trainer for the day I figured out two things really quick. One golfers dress funny, and two not wearing a collared shirt to a gold course was like wearing a bright yellow tux to prom. Once they gave me a loaner me and my instructor Ryan went out to the range. Ryan was a young guy that played golf in college and was living in Hawaii with his girlfriend (almost fiancée). He looked like the golfers that I saw on T.V. The only difference was he wasn’t stuffy at all. Ryan was personable and even talked basketball with me for a while. (Stereotype broken)
My session was for forty five minutes. After the first fifteen something happened that felt like I just won the lottery. The ball actually went straight. I looked at Ryan with the look of surprise that I used to have when one of my teachers caught me passing notes in class. Ryan said “good job” and told me to hit another one. The same thing happened, only this time the ball went a little bit further. After thirty minutes I hit one out of every three or four shots pretty good. Ryan complimented my swing and told me when I got back to New Jersey to do what I tell kids to do every day(PRACTICE). We shook hands and I haven’t been to a range since.
I have friends that golf and I’ve often heard them say that it’s that “perfect shot” which brings them back to the course every day. They could be having the worst day on the course ever, and that one shot makes them realize how much they love the game. I actually felt it that day in Hawaii. I completely forgot all the bad shots once I hit the one good one. I had this moment of clarity that made me feel like I could do this all the time. It was such a great feeling. After the twelve hour plane ride back home all was forgotten but for that moment I felt amazing.
I always discuss how sports mirror life and vice versa. Think about that perfect golf shot in your life. It could be getting an A on a test, having a great game, acing a job interview, or sometimes just having a great day. There are millions of examples we could use, but the problem isn’t our accomplishments it’s our failures. We focus so hard on all the balls we shank instead of the ones we hit perfectly. We become obsessed with our failure to the point where even when the ball goes straight we don’t notice it.
In basketball we say “next play” when something bad happens. That basically means move on, let it go, make the next good play. I think about some of the great golfers in the world, what if they focused solely on the shots they hit poorly? How could they ever focus on making their next shot their best shot?
We all have different courses that we play on. Some are hillier than others, some have traps that seem impossible to get out off, but there are some people that always seem to be playing on the perfect course. Those are the ones that no matter how bad they do it’s that perfect shot that they remember. They leave the course excited to come back and test themselves the next day.
No I’m not Tiger Woods, but for one shot I felt like him.
