Everybody buckle in, I’m about to
tell you something that we all already know, and have heard a million times.
Are you ready?
Here it is.
Drive for show, putt for dough!
I warned you…I did warn you.
We all intrinsically understand
this age-old maxim, even though most of us don’t spend much time thinking about
it ahead of time. You know what I’m
talking about – you get on the course, you strike out two solid bags of balls
onto the driving range, you loosen up practicing your putting while waiting in
line for the Starter to call out your name…
…and then as soon as you get on
the #1 teebox, you completely forget about putting.
Feels good...feels good.......nope, it's in the woods. Two off the first! |
Maybe your personal casual rules
allow for “two off the first tee” – with the heavily-leaned-on addendum: “…if
needed (and it will be your golfmates who ultimately tell you whether
it is needed or not…you know the drill).”
Maybe your personal serious play involves playing every single shot as
it lies…no matter what. All of
these personal inclinations and degrees of severity aside, the simple truth always
remains the same:
As soon as you tee off, putting is the furthest thing from your mind.
And we all know how that first
hole goes, too. Your best friend and/or
your regular golfmate and/or the guy that the Starter paired you off with all
play slightly differently. One of you
shanks into the woods, just ‘cus your swing speed was a little too high in your
zeal to get to the short clubs. One of
you drives it clear down the center, with a backswing smooth as butter. One of you takes a more strategic play and
lays up into an area that is primed for a precision strike towards the hole,
emboldened from your experience with the course.
And none of that is a problem,
because you know that your own game is your own game, and your own game is in
your head – after all, the game is 50%
physical and 90% mental. Sir
Shanks-a-lot makes a brilliant recovery shot from the woods, and that is okay…his game is his game. The Straight Shooter slightly flubs the
second shot, but is still in good shape, and that is okay…his game is his game. The
Specialist makes the safe shot with accuracy, but is still a long way out from
the green, and that is okay…his game is
his game.
At this point, every one of us is
totally within our own minds, in our own headspace, and we’re exclusively focused
on the singular process of getting to the
dance floor.
And that is totally okay…our game is our game.
And then…the oh-so- satisfying plunk of the ball of our choice –
Bridgestone Tour B330, Callaway HEX Diablo, Nike RZN Black, Titleist DT
Trusoft, Srixon Q-Star– landing on that immaculately tailored surface. We can hear the hollow thud of the deck being struck as we roll out to our next future
stroke – it doesn’t even matter that we’re not physically close enough to actually hear it, because that sound
has played itself in our minds over and over and over for years...we know what that sound sounds like, and
we hear it in within our skulls. We look
forward to repairing our divot with our trusty tool as we approach the fruits
of our labor and look forward to the next challenge.
Time to put on your dancing shoes. |
That’s right, we’ve landed on the
green… we can put away everything else, take our glove off, and pull out ye
olde Texas Wedge, safe and secure that we won’t be using it to punch through
any long stuff. Now we go into Dancing Mode; the Green has extended its
right hand to us, and we we’re ready to grab it with our left and lead in the Tango of the Worthy.
We’re thinking about the
undulation of the deck. We’re thinking
about where the sun is in the sky so we can know which way the blades of grass
are bending to reach the light and how that will affect our next stroke. We breathe in and out in metered and
practiced movements as we practice our pendulum – some of us both before and
after we ever even take a look at our lie.
We’re ready for battle.
Then, invariably, it happens.
We hear the echoing clatter of
someone else’s ball bouncing about in the cup.
Whodunnit?
Sir Shanks-a-lot managed to
recover and pierce the heart of the green like it was a dartboard. Straight Shooter pulled just a little bit,
and found himself leaning on his back foot with his sandwedge. The Specialist played as was his plan, and
still has two putts to close out for par.
So, Whodunnit? Who is the
mystery man who plugged the cup and nailed the early par? We pop our heads up like gophers to see which
one of us is pumping his fist in victory.
And, at least in our minds,
It is always the one who least deserved it.
As if to twist the knife after it
has already been driven home, the words we all know are coming actually come.
“Drive for show, putt for dough, babeeeee!”
And we breathe deep, and remind
ourselves…his game is his game. Then we close out the hole on our own terms,
as much as that is possible.
Congratulations are extended amongst the participants, we shove our
short sticks back into their holsters, record our (most-times)honest accounting
of the incursion to the unforgiving arbiter of The Scorecard, pull our gloves
on tight, and accelerate our cart in such a way that doesn’t spill our beverage
from our Styrofoam cup.
We console ourselves with the
knowledge (or listen to others actively explain to us) that “the greens weren’t
rolling right,” or “did you SEE that ball jump right there on the way to the
hole?” We consistently give in to our
own regret and listen to our golfmates’ lamentations of “…if only...”
And we do everything we can on
the next teebox to believe that the previous hole never even happened. This is a new hole. A new future.
A new chance.
The truth is that we have all
been on both the giving and receiving ends of this experience – be it on the
first hole or the fourteenth. We have enjoyed
the jubilation when it is our own personal victory, and we have endured the
jocular celebration of another that is the equivalent of a Running Back or a
Wide Receiver spiking the ball into the End Zone. Depending on who we are, there a no stakes,
low stakes, or high stakes – whether we are our own greatest opponent or we’re
playing for drinks at the 19th hole or whether we’re playing a
high-dollar game for skins. In every
case, hole by hole, our challenge is the same: we have to not let it go to our
heads, and we have to stay within our own
game.
And that is the beauty of the
sport. In no other sport are we our own
referee. In no other sport is there an
accepted and accredited “par excellence,” to which we strive to both conform
and exceed. In no other sport are we
expected to keep track of our own statistics so that we might best understand
how we stack up, and where we need to improve.
Although we may either
from-time-to-time or regularly enjoy the spirit and experience of competition –
after all, it is only in the face of competition that we may spread our wings
and grow – in the end, it is always Us versus Ourselves. It is
ourselves against ourselves when we are not on the course, and it is ourselves
against ourselves when we are on the course.
There is no other truism so
absolute in Golf as:
Drive for show, putt for dough.
What do you think?
What have been your experiences
on the golf course?
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scientifically and artistically to provide us all with the landscape that
facilitates the most honest battleground that exists:
Us Versus Ourselves.
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