Setting goals is nothing new in this little corner of the internet. New year, new season; it's all very exciting. Starting on a clean slate always feels good, and the upcoming possibilities are endless. Will my winter practice pay dividends? Is this the season I set a new personal best? Maybe I'll finally get a hole-in-one? We're on the first tee of the season and whether we make the most of it or not is up to us.
We're all quick to turn into walking advice columns when we have even a modest amount of knowledge or experience with something. In the era of Google, we've become reluctant to learn things the old fashioned way. We're losing our ability to block out the noise and dig answers out of the dirt.
No matter who we are or what we do, we all feel pressure at times. Whether it's on the golf course or at work or when you're the emcee at your friend's wedding reception and everyone is counting on you not to stink. Achieving anything in life will have some level of pressure associated with it, therefore pressure isn't something we should avoid, but rather something we should embrace.
It's that time of year when those of us who have endured a long winter start to emerge from our shanties, often scruffy looking and mumbling to ourselves. Winter can be an emotionally jarring time for golfers, but that's also what makes spring the most exciting time of year...
I'm not really a New Years resolution type of guy. The concept of waiting until January 1st to instill positive change in one's life is a weird one to me. Why can't we set our minds on doing something positive on March 17th? Or October 21st?
Having said that, there is something mentally refreshing about the ol' Gregorian odometer turning over. The start of a new year creates the perception of a clean slate from which to renew our ambitions. As golfers, we need all the help we can get keeping our minds free of unnecessary clutter, and the start of a new year is a good excuse to clean house.
Stay patient.
So simple.
Why is it so difficult sometimes?
I've struggled staying patient on the course at times. In my previous blog entry I wrote about how patience was taken over by frustration in our first round of the Calgary Golf Association's Riley's Best Ball event, which knocked us to the consolation side.
Since then we've mustered up a couple wins and found ourselves in the consolation quarter-final match last night on the Hawk course at Priddis Greens G&CC. It has taken me a while to implement relentless patience this season, but I have started to find some recently.
I play golf because I love the game and everything that comes along with playing it -- time with friends/family, exercise, challenge, purpose, and a post-round beer, to name only a few things. This doesn't mean there aren't sporadic feelings of frustration and betrayal.
Most of us who play the game, in many ways, experience the emotions of being in a lopsided relationship. It feels at times as though we love golf more than golf loves us. We put so much into it and at times get nothing back on the scorecard. When it feels like golf is betraying us, we swear coming off the 18th green that we need to take a break, just to wake up the next morning with renewed optimism, that our next effort or tweak will encourage golf to be more faithful to us.
While there is still a grotesque amount of snow on the ground here in Calgary, the days are getting longer and people are starting to agree with me that Tiger is going to win The Masters, which means spring is in the air and it's time to get fired up for the season.
I've said it before and I'll say it again -- everyone needs an off-season. Whether it's measured in weeks or months, we all need that physical and mental reset. After using a productive off-season last year to start the season strong, lower back and sciatic nerve pain eventually held me back from making more progress … Continue reading Road to Scratch Update: Gearing up for the Off-Season
The great thing about golf is that you learn something every time you tee it up. Whether it's something about your game, the course you're playing, or yourself as a human, the learning opportunities are everywhere. And unfortunately, as I learned this year, adversity also offers some of the best opportunities to learn.
