Like Churchill said

Once again, through the game of golf, I learned (better said, re-learned) an important lesson about stick-to-it-ive-ness. A few words of explanation:

Every year, around the middle of August, there is a local Columbus amateur golf tournament. It is flighted so all levels of players can enter and compete against their peers. It is a lot of fun and something I look forward to each year with anticipation of having two days of good competition and pressure and performance under said pressure (I wish there were more tournaments like it that I could play in).

This year, as the tournament approached, I felt better and better about my game. I was striking the ball well, putting and chipping well and just playing very well. Of course, that was my first clue that something was not quite right.

On the first day of the two day tournament, I got to the course early, warmed up well and was ready to go when my tee time rolled around. Then, from almost the first hole to the last, I played as if I hadn't seen or touched a golf club in the last long while (days, weeks, months, who knows, as Eeore would say). I struggled mightily and at the end of the day, shot a score which essentially, in my mind, took me out of the running for any of the prizes in my flight. Two of the other golfers in the foursome shot 4 and 5 shots better than I did and there were another 5 golfers with the same kinds of lower scores.

On the second day of the tournament, I again warmed up well and then for the first 6 holes played a bit worse than the day before (hard to do, but achieved nonetheless). I was discouraged and then, basically, stopped worrying and relaxed, since I was playing only for my own enjoyment and to see if I could execute shots the way I wanted and planned to execute them.

At that point, I challenged myself to bring things back to bogey golf. That meant that I needed to make just 3 pars in the next 12 holes. Almost immediately, my game shifted into a relaxed, tension free, athletic state. My next drive was powerful, straight with a slight draw, right down the middle of the fairway. I parred the 7th hole.

Okay, now I only needed to par 2 of the next 11 holes to reach my goal. Tee shot on 8 was perfect, leading to a par. Tee shot and approach on 9 led to another par. I had reached my goal in three holes, not 12. Cool and still relaxed, I played extremely well on the back nine, shooting a 38, just 2 over par (including a birdie on a par 5). Kinda fun, actually.

I shook hands with my fellow golfers (two of whom would eventually win 1st and 3rd place) and went in to turn in my score. After handing over my score card, I went to get a plate of lunch provided by the tournament sponsors and then sat down.

I looked up at the posted scores for the flight and found the lowest, next lowest, 3rd lowest scores. As I looked for the 4th place golfer's score, I didn't see anyone's score that beat mine for 4th. Not believing it, I looked again and then again, finally believing what I saw. There were four more golfers left in the flight who hadn't finished yet, but each of them had shot much higher scores than I had the first day and would have had to shoot under par to beat me. They did eventually come in and hadn't been under par, so, when the prizes were awarded, I was announced as the 4th place finisher for my flight. Cool stuff and a lesson in not giving up, in setting small goals and enjoying the little triumphs in life.

Have a good one and never, never, never, never give up. KipK