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 ...

Today, the title says it all. I survived the golf course today. 😂 Summer golf in Jeju is not something to take lightly. Before the round, I looked perfectly fine. In fact, I looked quite cheerful in the photo I took before teeing off. But there are no photos of me after 18 holes. Maybe I was too tired to take one. 😂 One of my friends, PD, suddenly started feeling sick from the heat during the round. He ended up resting in the cart for about two holes. Luckily, I had brought some chilled watermelon with me. “Stay in the cart and eat some of this,” I told him. Honestly, watermelon tastes especially good on a hot golf course. 🍉 Then something funny happened. The first hole where PD decided to rest was a par 3. From the cart, he called out to us, “Make lots of putts. I’m going to rest a little longer.” Well... I hit my approach shot beautifully and left it very close to the hole for par. Another friend chipped in for a birdie. So neither of us even needed to use a putter. We simply fin...

This early morning, as usual, I was getting ready to take my two dogs, Rich and Ruby, for a walk. But when I opened my front door, I suddenly froze. There was a dark pile lying right in front of the entrance. I was scared to look at it closely. Honestly, I thought it might be a dead cat because it was about the same size. I didn't pick it up. Instead, my mind was already getting busy and stressed, imagining how I was going to deal with a dead animal first thing in the morning. Then I turned on the light. And guess what? It wasn't a dead cat. It was my golf wear! 😂 After yesterday's round, I had hung all my golf clothes on the laundry line in the side garden. I must have been too tired to remember to bring them inside because I still had to teach until 9 PM. Apparently, one piece of clothing had fallen from the laundry line. And Rich had found it. He must have carried it all the way to my front door and stayed with it through the night. But the most surprising part? Rich di...