The Mirrors

Many duffers profess that golf is a microcosm of life experiences themselves. While golf is not life, my own behavior on the course reflects almost exactly my approach to various scenarios IRL. There are many times where you plan a shot, visualize it, and execute. For the advanced golfer, the results are pretty close to what you expect. The key phrase here is experience and wisdom.

When bad things happen in golf, what do you do? Sandy likes to play walk-on singe and join groups. So I get to see a vast array of reactions to very tough situations. Rarely does Sandy end up playing with someone that takes good and bad with equanimity. Most people react with verbal hatred of themselves as people and then physical hatred apparently towards the club they just used and slam it into the ground. Basically a show. Is that tantrum what these people really do at their jobs in the office? Can you imagine presenting a wonderful marketing plan to a board of directors, in which you are shot down for some reason or another, and then breaking out into a verbal and physical display of hatred at a board meeting? Of course not, we tend to keep ourselves in check.

So why not the golf course? Why does so many people's sense of self-worth tied to a simple golf shot?

It reminds me of one of my favorite sections of Zen Golf by Dr. Joseph Parent entitled 'Who's to say what is good or bad'. This is later in the book, and it's placement may be overlooked by many people, but I consider it one of the most important life and golf lesson ever. Dr. Parent describes a scenario which did have me asking, what is good and what truly is bad. I've had many real life experiences where things absolutely did not go as planned and results were exactly opposite of what I wanted. We are talking serious life scenarios people, not fufu what am I wearing today stuff. I was not accepted into the first three colleges I applied for, but I was accepted at the fourth. I thought it was going to be terrible not having to go to the places I was planning to go to. But now, many many years later, my entire life, career, friends, nearly everyone that is important to Sandy, all came from the 'bad problem' of going to the college that was 4th on my list.

So what is good and what is bad? How you deal with life's tough situations should mirror how you respond to troubles on the short stuff. If not, why not? You don't yell at yourself and call yourself stupid names when you make a mistake at the office. Why do you murder yourself on the golf course? Try this for one round: when you hit a bad shot, shrug it off. Really, you have to say something like 'this too shall pass' or 'hmm., that is not like me, oh well'. If you live in this game, that may be very tough for you to do, but try it once for a couple holes. Let it go, and you will find you will get there.

Going for it

Why so few entries? Sandy is dang busy. Since leaving the Buffalo Golfer community and relocating to the not-as-much-snow area of Western Michigan, things have been rocky but getting better.

So Sandy has decided (Sandy loves 3rd person references), to give the tours a crack at his majesty. Q-school is not ready to handle it yet, but something smaller can. So I joined up and am playing in the Golf Channel Amateur Tour in Michigan, the Grand Rapids Division.

So far, results have been... humbling. I know many duffers and when I show them the scores that Sandy posted, they sneer at the scores and quickly slip me a scientific calculator for my next rounds.

Little did they realize, that the tournament golf can be an axe or a polishing stone for ones game.

Now Sandy chuckles when they wonder how I beat them in the friendly skins game. Anyone interested in proving your own game needs to put it in play at tournaments. This is the only place you will truly know if you are really able to make the 4 footer for par all your buddies typically 'give' you.

At the time of this post, Sandy is 2nd in Merit points on the Sarazen flight -- attempting to finish first for the season. What comes is what comes. Bring your game

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/GALeagueTournament/tour.asp?source=aagt&detail=1&menuitem=1&TOUR_ID=10000046