One Swing Philosophy — What Golf Taught Me About Life

I went to the driving range today, just as I had planned. And something amazing happened. My full iron swing was coming back. My wood and driver swings were also starting to feel natural again. As I hit ball after ball, I suddenly realized something I had forgotten for a while. Golf gives you back what you practice. I think I had become a little too proud of myself. Because of my finger pain, I hadn't been able to practice properly for quite some time. Yet I kept playing rounds, and somehow, I was still able to enjoy golf. I even had some surprisingly good shots and scores. So, for a while, I started to believe: Maybe I don't really need to practice that much to enjoy golf. Today, the driving range reminded me that I was wrong. Golf is not a sport you can truly enjoy without practice. Especially for an amateur golfer. When you stop practicing, your swing slowly disappears. And when that happens, a round of golf that should be fun can become surprisingly painful. Golf is such a ...

After playing golf for a long time, I think every golfer has had this thought at least once: “I think I've finally figured out my swing.” I did, too. For a while, I was playing pretty well even without practicing much. My shots were good, my swing felt comfortable, and I started to become a little too confident. At one point, I honestly thought: “Maybe I've conquered my golf swing.” Now that I think about it, that's hilarious. 😂 I mean, I'm an amateur golfer! If Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, or Adam Scott had heard me say, “I think I've conquered golf,” I wonder what they would have thought. They might have looked at each other and said, “You conquered golf?” 😳 And then quietly thought, “This woman must be joking.” 😂😂😂 The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it sounds. But that ridiculous thought taught me something important. Golf is not an easy sport to conquer. When I stopped practicing regularly, my shots slowly became less consisten...

I didn't play golf today. And somehow, I'm still having a very happy day. Rain was in the forecast today. Usually, I might have felt a little disappointed. “Of all days, why does it have to rain today?” But today was different. At around 4:30 a.m., I went for my usual walk with Ruby and Rich. The forecast said the rain would start at 6, but less than three minutes into our walk, I felt a few raindrops. We hadn't had much rain for almost a month, and farmers were already suffering from damage to their crops because of the prolonged dry weather. So this time, I didn't mind the rain coming early at all. Normally, I might have complained, “Oh, come on. Why is it raining already?” But today, I thought, “That's okay, rain. You can come early. Pour as much as you want.” After such a long dry spell, the rain felt like something to be grateful for.  We quickly went to a nearby park so the dogs could do their business, and then we headed home. But just as we were getti...

Today was the first day of my summer vacation. I had a 9-hole golf gathering at 6:30 in the morning, so I woke up around 4 a.m. I took Ruby and Rich for their morning walk, got ready, and drove about 30 minutes to the golf course. It might sound a little crazy to get up that early just to play golf, but during the hot summer, early morning is actually the most comfortable time for me to play. So when I have the chance, I don't hesitate. When I arrived, the band leader was already there. We were divided into two groups of three. But I wasn't placed with my usual friends. Instead, I was paired with two men I had never met before. Since we were strangers, we started our round rather quietly. At the first tee, I stood there with my ball and tee and asked, “May I tee up first?” One of them smiled and asked, “Do you play from the white tees?” That's a question female golfers often get. They kindly let me go first. So I put my tee into the ground and hit my first drive. And… It we...