10/15/03

I have a great golf swing. I have been playing golf for thirty years. I have had formal training and have coached my step son from the time he was eight years old, and he is much better than I, at the age thirteen. Still I am only a fifteen handicap, and I usually put below thirty. I can give you lots of critic on your swing to greatly improve you game. I have spent volumes of time at the driving range and hit thousands of balls, yet I have been unable to master what I have been teaching. Why is that?

   The best golf stroke is the one you don’t think about. You focus on where the ball is going to land and you simple put it there. You know where the ball is going to land before you make the swing. You never concentrate on the swing.

   Life is like that, you need to know where you want to go, then just be there. That is the fastest way. I am not a consistent golfer, because I concentrate to much on the mechanics of my swing. I think too much about the positioning of my club, my body posture, weight shift, all of these things are running through my conscious mind as I am swinging my club. I loose focus on where it is that my ball is going to land.

   My life has been the same way. I have lacked focus. I have not determined what it is I really desire or where I want to be in my future. In fact I seldom have thought about my future. I can’t say that I have be fulfilled by what I have done so far. I have spent too much time on detail in the moment with my head down to the grindstone.

   Part of the game of golf is in enjoying the experience, is being in the moment, but aware of a direction, a goal. It’s a way of life that includes others and your environment, but it is always about playing the game. It’s about being in the game, with a chance to play the perfect game. It’s about creating the perfect game in your mind, then going out and playing it. It’s about relaxing and enjoying the course. Its about not taking it too seriously and having fun. It’s also about being focused on putting that little ball exactly where you want it. In golf you must develop a rhythm on the course in order to play well and go with the flow, moving from one shot to the other, but living in the moment you make the shot. The best shot is the one that you just let happen, because you know it will work. Golf is a great metaphor for life.

   In life we must also have rhythm, life goes along easily when we go with the flow. Life also has challenges for those that want to try the hard shots, the impossible shots. Life gives us choices. As in golf we have an infinite variety of shots with almost as many clubs. A good golfer who is really into his game, welcomes the poor shots that leave his ball in a difficult lay. He is never overwhelmed to the extent that he can not play the ball. The challenge is in making the perfect shot from a bad lay. I do not fear bunkers, because I have a lot of experience getting out of them.

   My life has too much detail and it’s distracting, and gets in the way of manifesting the things in my life that I think I desire. I spend to much time at the driving range and not enough playing the game. As the golfer that plays 130 strokes going back and forth from one side of the fairway to the next, I have had too many directions. Life is the game, not the practice. Practice comes along the way, as we learn to make those incredible shots that the boys will talk about at the club house.

   A perfect game of golf would be eighteen strokes. I believe there would be few golfers that would want to play that kind of a game. Once the ball hits the bottom of the eighteenth hole, the game is over. Every shot on the course is remembered, both the worst and the best, but seldom the mediocre. The one that gets the all the attention, and is talked about the most, is the one that comes from a poor lie. The perfect recovery shot, everybody loves a hero. I still remember shots that I made thirty years ago. Scores are compared and forgotten, but often we beat ourselves up with the memories of poor shots and praise ourselves with the memories of birdies, eagles and holes-in-one. Golf, as in life is a game we learn as we go. It is a process that has a natural rhythm and a song. We may not always be on the fairway, but we are always in the game, and there is not a true golfer anywhere that would have it any other way. The opportunities to learn and become heroes, are in the ruff. Between the shots we walk the fairways and enjoy our environment and move with the natural flow and rhythm of the game. It is not a time for reflection, it is not a time for detail, it is a time of relaxation, and a knowingness that we are in the game and another opportunity is about to laid in front of us.

   Golf is best enjoyed, between the time we tee off and the time we put out. Life is best enjoyed between the time we are born and the time that we die. The best and most difficult shots are the ones that are most remembered, and cherished. The chance to play is the most valued.