Playing From the Rough

Professional golf legend Ben Hogan once said, "Golf to me is a livelihood in doing the thing that I love to do. I don't like the glamour. I just like the game." As we see the Masters Golf Tournament wrap up this weekend I am compelled to apply Mr. Hogan's words to my own philosophy by which I live my life. Living is who we are and what we do, sometimes loving it more than other times. We mustn't strive to live for glamour, but for the love of life. When Mr. Hogan published his classic, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, he challenged the way most people looked at the game of golf explaining that, "the difference between good and great golfers is not the quality of of their good shots as much as it is the quality of their poor shots, he allowed millions of golfers to become more forgiving of their misses. In doing so, they also learned to not dwell on their bad shots, but rather to learn how to get beyond them." (Fearless Golf, by Dr. Gio Valiante, p. 149) It is a similar way to coach a little league baseball player who walks away from a strike-out or a missed ground ball head hung low and tear-filled eyes to have a short memory. In other words, what's done is done, you know better now what to do now than you did a moment ago. Like life we are able to see figure out how to move beyond the temporary failure or gaffe and fix it. It is the simple art of playing badly well. The bad shot, decision, action, or statement allows each player in the game of life to learn how to get out of the tall grass and around the obstacles so that the memory will aid the next dilemma. I've learned a few valuable lessons from the game of golf which I attempt to play badly well. One is that when you make the errant shot that rolls to a stop in a place unintended and unwelcomed, you can no longer dwell on how you arrived at the place of confusion, dismay, and frustration. It is then the time to focus anew on how you right the next move. The next shot taken that may be in the midst of a grove of trees that create a blindness as to where and how to move forward creating doubt and panic, both of which are enemies to getting on the desired track. It is helpful to listen to the partner with whom you are playing the game, be it golf or life, whom you trust. They may see more clearly from a different vantage point how to orient the next action in a way that doesn't seem obvious, perhaps at times absurd. But trust in oneself, washing away doubt and frustration while listening to wisdom beyond your current situation may be another nudge to do what must be done to finish what was started. And, most often it is not by brut strength, trikery, or heroic tactics, rather a simple tap to a new and more manageable place in the game of life that leaves us able to see and act more clearly and decisively. In life, our most trusted advisor has a vantage point that no one else surrounding us possesses, and it is He, our loving and trustworthy God who can point the way toward our destination. There are many sounds that I love to hear. Favorites songs, children's laughter, intelligent conversations, tasteful jokes, the greeting, "Hey Dad!" The list could go on for pages, but, there is one sound that may seem strange to some, but not to others. That is the sound like no other of a golf ball rolling into the hole on the green that seemed so far away just minutes before. It meant that good shot or bad, I finished what I set out to do. I long for the day when faith is sight, and the sound I hear is the voice of God saying, "Well done!" Until that day, I know that I will spend time making graceful moves that impress those around me and others in the hard places, scratching my head and looking for what the next step will be. Jesus said to his disciples a short time before his arrest, "a time is coming and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:32-33 NIV) My father taught me the game of golf, and unwittingly taught me how to play the game of life. As a frustrated boy, on the green grass of the course we shared for a few hours he continually reminded me of how and what I was supposed to do. He never left me alone, he was always with me, even when I couldn't hit a ball to any desired locations. He was with me and he taught me and watched me struggle even to the point of anger. One lesson he taught me that I've never forgotten to this day is that you never throw your clubs down, because you'll have another shot. "In this life you will have trouble, but take heart!" Our character is not truly revealed in how we stumble, fall, or spend our time in the roughs of life, it is shown in how we get up and take the next shot without fear or doubt. Take heart!