6/29/22

In its simplest form, golf mirrors life.  We face our day-to-day needs by trying to satisfy them. We face our day-to-day challenges by attempting to overcome them. For me, the most significant human desire that golf addresses is the need to be challenged.  Regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age, or any human categories that tend to divide us, golfers are just about universally united on the simplicities that make the game so alluring and addicting.

There are several joys I get from this great game, but the greatest joy for me is the challenge of it.  I have been involved in sports, in some capacity, for most of my life.  From the time that I was a toddler, my father put a ball in my hands to teach me how to be an athlete.  He had been a college athlete and chose to be a physical education teacher for his profession.  Given that background and being born the oldest son and namesake of my father’s, once I was conceived, sports was going to be a big part of my life.  By the time I got to elementary school, I started playing organized football, basketball, and baseball.  In addition, I grew up in a neighborhood where sports were an essential part of life for boys.  I played the aforementioned three sports in high school and continued to play two of them (football for a year and baseball for four years) in college.  After college and a stint in the Navy, I came back to my high school alma mater and started teaching English and coaching the three sports I had played.  While my father introduced me to golf when I was a boy (mentioned in the essay on my golf origins), I didn’t take to the game until my last year in the Navy and just before my educator career started.  At that stage of my life, unlike when I was a child, golf hooked me.  I think that the reality was that I was not ready or mature enough to embrace golf when I was a child. As an adult, what really got to me was why I couldn’t hit a ball sitting still when I had been hitting a moving ball since I could remember? While I can now hit the ball, the more sophisticated (and obsessive) challenge is hitting it where I want to hit it!  These challenges (as frustrating as they can be) of hitting the ball well and where I want to hit it are what keep me coming back to golf.  On those rare occasions when I am hitting the ball how and where I want to hit it are among the great joys I have experienced in sports.  Most athletes have had the wonderful experience of making that great play or having that great game that you’ll never forget.  However, I must say that the joy I get from playing golf well is second to no other athletic experience that I have had. The real magical hook of golf is that even on those rare occasions when I am playing at my best, golf continues to push me further. Whether I am playing with others or playing alone, the game is just as challenging, enjoyable, and seductive. Golf is a game where there is no perfection; the constant striving to be as close to perfect as possible is where this game is different from any other.  Your best score can always be better, without exception!  From Tiger Woods in his prime to the beginning player, our score can ALWAYS be at least one stroke lower.  To quote the fictional character Bagger Vance, “What I’m talkin about is a game…a game that can’t be won only played.” That’s the beauty and addiction of golf!! 

The simple challenges of learning how to play golf and play it skillfully can be frustrating, but the joy of taking that journey is well worth the cost.  Like life, golf gives me new hopes for better tomorrows (sometimes the next shot, sometimes the next round, sometimes the next season). The reward in life comes from persevering through adversity with all the effort that you can muster. There is great satisfaction in looking back over an arduous but successful journey. As the lyrics to the old Frank Sinatra song go, “I’m gonna live till I die.” I intend to play until I physically can’t. I thank God every day for the gift of golf in my life and the associated lessons learned. It is imperative to play the next shot, regardless of what comes next.  Perseverance through challenge brings reward.  That’s is one of life’s simple and purest joys.