2020 - The best year for Golf?
It’s 9.00am on a Friday and I’m trying to squeeze a few holes in before a busy day’s coaching, life is good. I’m 112 yards from the flag, and there is a soft breeze out of the right and the air is cool. I can still make out the morning dew on the perfectly manicured and untouched green in front of me, it’s a perfect gap wedge, it can’t be a sand wedge as I left it in the boot of my car from the previous days chipping practice - muppet. So I commit to the shot aiming straight at the right hand flag and fully commit.
Now to say I caught this shot a bit thin would be the understatement of the year, I won’t go into specifics but let’s just say it resulted in a thrown gap wedge and a slight red mist meltdown. Which got me thinking, do I only enjoy golf when I’m playing well?
I’m currently writing this from the comfort of my sofa thinking about the day when everything returns to normal. It always interests me what peoples perceptions of normal is. For me, like many of you my main focus Is when we can all be reunited with our family and friends without the fear of putting anyone in harms way.
But as a keen golfer I can’t help but admit my excitement for the moment I can get back on the course with friends and enjoy what I’m sure will be a laughable round in the mid 90s, jesting at my inability to swing a club or hole a three footer. But the question is why am I now excited to get out and play golf regardless of the score or outcome, when previously anything that was below a standard I set for myself resulted in frustration and a lack of enjoyment.
I can’t tell you the amount of times the red mist has descended over me all due to a typical wayward drive or a duffed chip, I’m sure most of us, if not all can relate to this. In some ways I believe this year could be the best year for golf purely for the fact we will all appreciate the experience so much more.
The saying of “absence makes the heart grow fonder”, seems somewhat poignant during this time, for me there have always been various facets of the game that I love, aside from the occasionally well struck shot, holed putt, or even the post round cold pint, it’s the joy of strolling down a freshly mown fairway, rolling a putt on a perfectly ironed green, discussing life with close friends often bantering over who will take the money that day, or even the feeling of taking out a brand new shiny set of clubs for the first time.
I have a close group of friends and we all grew up playing junior golf together, to say we are highly competitive would be putting it lightly, it was our common interest in the game that brought us together and thankfully that hasn’t changed. But aside from the normal endless banter and the clashing of over inflated egos, we always want to see each other succeed.
It’s rare to play a sport where you can get such joy out of watching someone else pull of a miraculous shot, even if it costs you a few quid here and there, and at the same time laugh just as much, when you watch them top their next tee shot . I hope everyone is lucky enough to experience the joy this great game has brought me over the years and the fantastic people it has led me to meet along the way. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait to long before we can enjoy this great game again. Please feel free to leave a comment on my Facebook page or send me a message and let me know what your looking forward to doing the most, when we get back to enjoying this great game,
