The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Well the 80’s streak is broken with three rounds in the 70’s this week. Nothing spectacular but 77, 77, and 76 today felt mighty good. Yes I did some things different this week with the hope that they might be long term solutions. I made a radical address position change and I had a new idea on how to perceive your golf swing. If these things prove to be worth while then I will discuss them in detail later.

But tonight I want to discuss something that was brought up in another blog, All About Golf, by Brian Penn. What is the best way to go about getting the most out of your golf game and still be able to recognize members of your family. Not only to balance that, but also to balance the time you have between practice and playing. Now, Brian already knows I believe playing is more important than practice. But the real problem may be trying to do the balancing act, rather than just accepting the fact that you are doing the best you can  under the circumstances. Just because you do not get in the practice time because real life gets in the way, does not mean that you are doomed for a bad round. Let me relate what happened to me from 1994 to 1996. In the fall of 94 I decided to get away from the game for awhile. No golf the rest of 94 and none in April and May of 95. Then low and behold I get an invite to play Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. Now I could have recieved this invite any time in the previous 20 years and needless to say I was flabbergasted to get the invitation on the one year that I decided not to play golf at all. If you don’t know, this is the golf course that Jack Nicklaus grew up on. There was no way I was going to pass this up. I was scheduled to play on a Tuesday. The Thursday before was the South Park men’s championship, a 36 hole event. So I figured, what the hell I’ll sign up for the tournament, and get a solid 36 holes of golf in before I play in Columbus. Even though I wasn’t playing that year, I was hitting balls about twice a week, just to keep my golf muscles in shape, because I knew I would be getting back into golf in a year or maybe two. I shot two 78’s in the tournament and felt I at least would not make a total ass of myself at Scioto. So five days later I played Scioto and I was more nervous there, than I was at the tournament, the week before. I got off to the typical shaky start and shot a 6 over 42 on the front. But then on the back nine something just clicked and I started hitting the ball well and got into the fairways and greens rut and made a birdie in the middle of the back nine and stood on the 18th tee one under par on the back nine. I hit a great drive down the middle and had a 7 iron in to back pin. I smoked it right at the pin, but with adrenaline flowing, it hit about 10 feet past the pin and went over the green in the rough. I had a tough little pitch to a short pin and executed the shot perfectly but the ball still went about 4 and half feet by. I really wanted that 1 under par back nine, and with a very still head I stroked the ball right in the middle of the cup. So you could say with 45 holes of preparation, I shot a 1 under par 35 on one of the best golf courses in the United States. I did not play another round of golf until May of 1996.

So what’s the point of all this. To be able to prepare to play your best golf is great. But if something comes up, that you can’t, just accept it, and feel you will still play your best, by finding it on the golf course. Just go play, because you never know what is going to happen and that is what makes this game just so DAMN GREAT.