“I had no idea where the ball was going.”-abk Golf
In retrospect, maybe I didn’t want to be there. That’s what everyone I saw at the course that day told me. Maybe I still wanted to be out on the water looking at the dolphins with my son as I had done the previous day. Maybe I wanted to be at home in the air conditioning resting my legs. But whatever it was, I was horrible. Terrible. No excuses. It was my worst round of golf in nearly two years.
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Imagine you started your life over at age 36 to start a journey, a very personal journey. You dedicated your time, effort, money, body, and resources to learning certain skills. Tricky skills. Tough skills. But useful skills that would help you build something really freaking cool. But then one random day a few years in, your body and mind forgot all of them.
That’s how I felt on Tuesday.
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If I had been keeping an individual score via full USGA rules on Tuesday, I think I would have broken 90, but just barely. It hurts to even type that. After an acceptable start, I had no idea what I was doing beginning on hole 5. Completely clueless. Back to square one. My play was poor. My scoring was poorer.
The following night I played nine holes with one of my students. I told him that if there was any night that he was going to beat me, it would be tonight. My play wasn’t much better than the previous day’s, but one of the skills I have developed as a professional is to grind out a reasonable score even on the bad days. I scraped together a 3 over par 39, still a little baffled at what the hell was going on.
I took Thursday off to teach a big group of kids, then got back to it on Friday with one of my buddies. My warmup was uninspired and terrible, but I was hellbent on getting my body to move correctly. Tap in par. Tap in birdie. Silly bogey. Tap in birdie. Tap in par. Tap in par. Lipout bogey. Tap in par. Tap in birdie. 1 under par 35, and quite possibly the best I’ve ever hit the ball. I’m back, or so I thought.
Saturday, I played five holes with another buddy, but I didn’t want to be there. Ditto for Sunday. Some good shots. Some bad shots. But mostly uninterested. That seemed to be the theme for the week.
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“We’re just trained professionals. We play basketball on days that we don’t want to play basketball.”- NBA player Lou Williams
I don’t play golf for a living, but being able to play golf well is a huge piece of my new lifestyle, credibility, and future in the golf universe. Because I came so late to the golf party, I’ve spent the last three plus years making up for lost time. But now, I know that I have to make an adjustment to the play/practice/rest schedule. Playing when I’m fried does no good. Playing when my back won’t rotate does no good.
I’m not an NBA player that has to bring it 82 nights a year whether they want to or not. I’m not a PGA Tour player that plays 30 weeklong tournaments per year.
I want to play 8-12 one day or two day tournaments a year. I want to be in peak condition for those. Ready and able to compete at a high level, and then see where that takes me.
The game of golf has magical surprises around every corner.
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Have a great week.-Benj
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