This is British Open week. It is one of my favorite weeks of life. I love the Majors in professional golf because the tournaments are so intense and meaningful to the players. In fact, I love golf. To me, it is one of the best sports on the planet. Some people say, “Oh, how can you love a sport where there is no real action?” The reality is golf is infinitely complex and quite spiritual.
Let’s discuss the complexity first. No matter how much you practice, the conditions always change. Some days, the wind blows, some days it sits down. In the same round the weather conditions can change several times. This is especially true on links style courses where the ocean meets the land. I played in Ireland in the middle of August several years ago. The conditions went from relatively warm and sunny to downright cold and blustery three or four times in the same round. I put on and took off rain gear more in that one week than I did at home in one year. Anybody who has ever seen Caddie Shack with Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Chevy Chase remembers the scene where the Reverin is playing the best round of his life in a giant thunderstorm and refuses the quit until he is struck by lightening!
Golf mimics life. Not only do external conditions change but internal ones change constantly as well. Where else can you experience a full range of emotions from elation, happiness, and joy to anger, frustration, and despair in one four hour round? Some people can go weeks or months in life without experiencing all these emotions.
In golf, the ball doesn’t move until you hit it but just about everything else does. The lies change constantly. Even if you drive the ball down the middle of a fairway it can wind up in someone’s un-repaired divot and you must play it where it lies. If someone did fill the divot with sand (and seed) then you must hit your ball out of a sand filled divot now. Neither situation brings joy to most golfers. Sometimes, you have side hill lies, up hill lies, down hill lies. There are traps, rough, fescue, and other kinds of grasses. The possibilities are endless and so are the choices. Remember, you have fourteen clubs in your bag and there are a multitude of ways to plays certain shots like chips or pitches!
Let’s talk about the Spiritual nature of golf. The more one lets go the better one tends to play. Too much pressure affects the grip, the large and small muscle groups, and just about every aspect of the game as a result. In the movie Tin Cup, Kevin Kostner’s character gives Rene Russo’s character a lesson on the driving range. She is gripping the club super-tight and hitting poorly. He stops her right away and tells her that golf is a game of “trust, touch, and letting go.” It’s so true. Our best performances usual come when we have peace of mind. The body knows what to do when the mind is still. This is why the top players in the world all have sports psychologists that they consult on a regular basis. This is why we tend to play our best golf when we are peaceful. This is why golf is such a Spiritual game!