Golf's Great Certainty (cont.)

You have to finish. 
YOU have to finish. 
You HAVE to finish. 
You have to FINISH. 

In golf there is no “this final putt is so easy that means I don’t need to do it”. Exactly the opposite is true. If’ it’s so easy you should have no problem doing it. Just go ahead and do it. 

Golf doesn’t allow the decision of a referee to decide an outcome. No referee has the power to call a close-call wrongly (e.g., as in tennis) and change the complexion of the match. It‘s the bottom of the hole that determines the leader. It doesn’t matter if you make your score with the driver, the putter or your short game. It doesn’t matter if you “scrape it around” or hit every green in regulation. The game is not “playing as you should” (i.e. according to the opinions of the experts, the gurus and the commentators) but play as you will. Get the ball into the hole is as few strokes as possible. It matters not if you use K-Mart clubs and range balls; get the ball into the hole.

A player’s “reputation” doesn’t give him or her a “leg-up” in golf beyond a preferential tee-time. One’s past accomplishments matter only in his or her own mind. The game is NOW. Hole the ball. The only laws that apply are physics and geometry and gravity. There will be no favorable foul calls to aid you (ala Jordan). There is no one to pass to in a tough spot. No room for a “breather”. 

Get it done, NOW. Perform. 

Can you handle it? 

Is your heart in your throat? Are you ready to lose your lunch? 

Or are you relishing this moment, this intensity, this competition? 

Are you planning your acceptance speech? 

Is this what you live for?

Whether a putt is “supposed” to break or not matters not. What happens is what determines things in golf, not what was “supposed” to happen. Golf doesn’t rely upon “supposed” to. It is based upon what is. Did you get it in the hole? Did it drop? Did the bounce help or hurt? In the end it doesn’t matter, you have to live with both..

We tend to think when we’re playing well we deserve good breaks. When we get a bad break we sometimes think “what did I do wrong”? Nothing. As far as you had anything to do with it, you did all you could and you did it correctly. But half of this game depends not upon you but upon outside physical forces; the work of the grounds-crew, the wind, the luck of the bounce. It matters not to the “luck-of-the-bounce” whether you are playing well or not, nor whether this is life or death to you or if you don’t really care. Golf is the purest sport because all its participants compete on equal footing and the results of the game are completely objective. What was your score? Period. It doesn’t matter that you “were 6 under after 9” and “destined” to a 64 and got robbed by a bad bounce. What did you shoot after the last putt was holed? What was the final score? Golf is 18 complete holes, not 16 holes and breeze it in.

That kind of objectivity gives everyone an equal chance to perform. That kind of objectivity is what makes golf the greatest game of all.


Jeff Guimont
Copyright 12-5-01
ProGolfTalk.com

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