When I was but a little boy, my father began taking me to the driving range, and eventually to the golf course with him. Soon, at around 8 or 9, I graduated to playing rounds of golf with him and his friends. Golf, and especially my father, have taught me many important life lessons.
Golf has taught me how to be gracious both in victory and defeat. When playing a contested match or tournament, I learned to shake my opponent’s hand with the same enthusiasm, regardless of the lower score at the end of the round.
I learned to leave the course better than I found it, so that others may enjoy the course as I have. We do this by replacing divots, fixing ball marks, and raking bunkers.
My father always stressed several fundamentals: grip, head, focus, and rules.
He would periodically inspect my glove and grips and tell me what I was doing wrong. He would take me to the range, grab a handful of my hair, and have me hit long irons. He would call out math problems or historical facts while I was in the middle of my backswing. My father was making me a better golfer. It worked, and I was able to beat my father, a 5 handicapper, on a regular basis before I was a teenager.
The most important lesson he enforced was the rule book. Especially rule 13. “The ball must be played as it lies.”
He used this as a metaphor for life. Just as in the course of a golf round we aren’t allowed to move our ball to a spot that affords us a better shot, we aren’t allowed to cheat in life. We take what the golf course of life gives us, and we make our best attempt on the next shot. Some times we hit the ball fat, some times it slices into the woods, and some times we hit the ball flush, and it stops on the green, inches from the cup.
Sometimes the lie of our ball is perfect: in the middle of the fairway, a perfect distance for a 7-iron approach, flat, with no breeze. Most of the time, something is wrong with the ball’s lie. It could be above or below our feet, in the rough, underneath some branches, or blocked by a tree.
Sometimes we can pull off a 40 yard snap hook to win The Masters like Bubba Watson did from the woods on 10. Sometimes we are coasting to a win at the same tournament a year earlier with 9 holes left to go, and wind up having a colossal meltdown, taking a triple bogey on the very same 10th hole. Just ask Rory McIlroy.
Right now, I have a shitty lie in life. The ball is below my feet, in deep, wet rough, embedded in a divot 240 yards from the green with a 50 foot pine tree between me and the green. And it’s raining with a stiff breeze in my face. Laying up isn’t an option.
I’ve never hit a shot like this, and don’t really know how to approach it. All I can remember is my grip, keeping my head down, and maintaining focus. I’ve taken enough time thinking about how to hit this next shot in life, and now it’s time to swing the club. My focus is aided by several quotes that have been circulating in my head. I believe they are applicable to both the game of golf, and the game of life.
“The most important shot in golf is the next one.” – Ben Hogan
“I never learned anything from a match that I won.” – Bobby Jones
“Play the ball as it lies, son. Play it as it lies.” – Dad
