Golf is a funny game

Golf is a funny game. There are the highs of things like a good drive, an amazing putt, or even excellent sand work. There are always the lows of golf, things like the bad drive, the game out of the rough, the ball hitting a tree, and of course the water hazard. It is inevitable in golf to have amazing days, days that when you experience them you feel as if you are the next tiger woods and your game is improving. But undoubtedly the next round of golf will having you screaming to give it up. One putt can cause this, one solo branch hanging from the tree, one bark of a dog any of these various things can cause this round of golf to become bad. It feels like the smallest things can throw off even the most amazing of days. One little event can cause everything to come down crashing around you.

Life is just like that. You could be having an amazing ride in life. Everything is going your way. You feel absolutely invincible as if nothing in life could or would change that. That’s just the way it goes in life. There are ups and downs. There are the unexpected hazards that come along the way. A family member may say something to throw you off of your par performance, you may experience little bumps along the way, heart-break may be hanging and in your vision of what lies ahead you may not see it because the end goal, the little tin cup may be all that you are focused on.
So many times we are focused on that one end result. The little two putt to success. But life isn’t that easy something sometimes. Sometimes we focus on the end result and look right past the obstacles that stand in our way. When we face obstacles we try to hit around them when they are right in front of us. We think we know exactly how to get out of the situation. He try every shot in the book and try to even force ourselves out of the position we are in but it only makes it worse. Sometimes we have to just be patient and hit the ball back in play even if that means we have to hit it back or even to the side. We have to work out situations even if they mean taking a couple strokes to get back in play.

The one thing about golf is you have to forget. You can have the worse shot of your life, the ball can land two feet from you or 250 yards away caked in mud, covered by a bush right in front of a sand trap. No matter what the shot is you have to do one thing, forget. Every shot good or bad you have to forget. You have to approach the ball differently every time. You have too see the lie the ball is in and approach unlike any other shot. That is the key. You have take every swing of the club as a new opportunity to reach your goal. No matter what happens you must keep playing. The same in life. everything in your life whether good or bad must be taken as a new opportunity. Every moment in life should not be taken for granted. It should be faced with the same fire and determination as the rest of those situations. It’s hard to forget sometimes. It’s hard to forget when you look down and see the ball and see where you need to be. It’s hard to forget about that last shot when there are a line of oak trees staring you in the face. Its hard to forget when you see the pin so far away and distant. It’s so hard to forget. But sometimes we need to take a step back from the ball and look where we started from. Sometimes the tee box is close but you realize that you were closer now than when you started. That’s the beauty of golf. Whether it is an inch or three hundred yards you are always farther than when you started. Life is the same way. Even in the most difficult positions you realize that you are farther then when you started. Even though you are so far away from your goal you realize that you are still farther from where you started. Even through all the bad decisions, and current crappy situation you are still farther. Isn’t this still what it is all about? A learning process? Even when we mess up do we still not learn from it and it makes us stronger. Forgetting about the past isn’t forgetting what we have learned but forgetting the mistakes we made and pushing on forward in our goal.

Nothing in life comes easy. No golf shot is easy. The one club you constantly use did not become your best club easily. It took practice, comfort, but most importantly it took confidence. It is that natural swing you look for in all your shots. Now granted, some clubs are easier than others but at the same time it did not come without practice and many drops of sweat on the driving and well as divots made by slamming your club into the ground. It takes work. Even in life there are certain scenarios that seem easy to you. But when you look at them all you realize that they didn’t become easy just from skill or even from luck’s sake. But they each took work, they took trials and tests to make you stronger. It took tearful nights as well as heartbroken days to make you a stronger individual. It took times on your knees crying out to God to take the pain away to make you stronger. It took you at your absolute lowest moments in life to show you exactly what you needed to learn. Sometimes in those weakest moments we realize we are relying on our own strength too much and we need God to get us through these trials.

But the one thing besides forgetting about the last swing is having the right attitude. You can be Arnold Palmer but if your attitude is crappy it will affect your game. The frustration, the anger, the exhaustion, all of it plays a factor in your game. Sometimes you need to take a step back and just breath in and take a look around to realize where you are. If you are playing golf you must enjoy some aspect of it. You look forward to playing. Sometimes in the midst of a horrible round that feeling changes. You begin to realize how miserable you are. Right there in that moment you just need to stop, take a breath, look around and realize that you are still playing golf. You are still able to walk around and swing a club and that in itself is a blessing. The same thing takes place in life. Sometimes we just need to stop close our eyes and take a deep breath in and realize one thing. No matter what you’re going through. No matter how painful it all may be one thing is true, You’re alive. Take it all in. Every breath, every moment, even every hint of pain in your heart are all subtle reminders that you are live. No matter what comes your way you need to remember you are alive. You have a chance to right the wrongs in your life. You have a chance to continue to live. You have a chance to continue to learn from your mistakes. And that in itself is more encouragement that one should need. Every drop of sweat, every tear that has fallen, every time your pupils shook with excitement, and every time your heart hurts so bad you only want to groan in pain its all for the better.

Golf is a funny game. It is unforgiving and has no master. You can be on top of the world one moment and in the next it is the most humbling three hours of your life. Golf has that ability. But life is the same way. One minute everything is going your way and yet it all seems to shatter right in front of you the next. Maybe that is why we are so intrigued by golf. Maybe that’s the reason we play it so much is that we can relate our lives to a simple after noon on the course. But with golf as well as life we have to continue fighting. We have to keep playing. We have to keep swinging no matter what we face.
Golf is a funny game.