Finding a Way: Volume 73

Without traffic, it is exactly three hours from my house on the coast of Mississippi to The Refuge golf course just outside of Jackson. This is important because at the eleventh hour on Monday night, I found out that my early morning childcare option for Tuesday had fizzled out. Therefore, I had to take my daughter to day care as I typically do, but the earliest they would take her was 6:50am. My tee time for my tournament that Tuesday, yes the one exactly three hours away, was 10am sharp. I had no time for traffic, no time for restroom breaks, no time for warmups.

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As I pulled into the golf course parking lot around 9:45am, it started pouring. On the positive side, my tee time was delayed one hour and I could relax for a second. On the negative side, the course would be soggy shortly.

My group teed off at roughly 11am, and to say it was windy is the understatement of the year. I do not like playing in the wind, but for the first time, the tricks that the stiff breeze played caused me to focus more.

My body felt great and my mind was clear, and I started playing some great golf. After back to back birdies on my fifth and sixth holes, I was under par and feeling as confident as ever, which is hilarious given my struggles over the last six weeks. After four more pars, I was cruising.

But on my 11th hole, I reached down to move a leaf and something stung the middle of my right hand. I cursed, pulled the stinger out, then got on with it, but not before giving back a couple of strokes on my next few holes. I birdied my 14th hole, threw in a few more pars, then limped in on the last. But not before playing the vast majority of my round under par and quite honestly playing the best tournament round of my very brief tournament playing life.

Not to mention I got to spend about five hours joking with some of my buddies. Their golf was a little bit rusty, but we laughed and horsed around like we were playing golf on a random autumn Tuesday, which we were.

Except that it was more than just golf on a random autumn Tuesday for me.

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With two events remaining in my first full tournament playing year, I’m fifth in the Assistant Player of the Year rankings for all of Mississippi and Louisiana. It’s only a metric and it’s certainly not the end all be all, but it sure is a great start. It makes the 4am wake up call, the six hour round trip drive, the rain, the wind, and my hand being stung worthwhile. It means that the process is working.

The process of patience, practice, patience, participation, patience, and performance.

Just rinse and repeat.

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Have a great week.-Benj

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