Driving With a Stick-Shift

Driving With a Stick-Shift

Greetings Golfers,

Played golf the other day with an old friend. Though we hadn’t seen each for a while … it was relaxed and comfortable immediately.

He noticed that I was driving a car that I’ve had forever. It’s just a fun car. It’s not fast … but it’s really fun to drive … if you like driving. And I love driving! Especially downshifting into a turn.

Driving a car is much like playing golf. I love to play golf the way I love to drive my old car. I love hitting golf shots the way I love downshifting into a turn.

I can’t imagine that people want self-driving cars. Maybe it’s because they’ve only driven modern, boring cars.

I just heard that people are spending 8 hours a day looking at their phone … and not spending time talking to people.

Maybe their conversations are as boring as driving a modern car … they need to shift gears!

My old friend and I spent 4 hours on the golf course talking about everything! It definitely wasn’t boring. It wasn’t crazy … it was fun and fascinating. We talked about anything and everything. It went from 1st gear to 5th gear … and everything in between. And we weren’t afraid of accelerating or downshifting … or just cruising for a while.

The golf was the same way. He’s recovering from a shoulder injury … so he just watched my shots, and we discussed the options before each shot. I’ve been through some shoulder problems so he was watching for movements in my swing that worked despite my restrictions.

Hitting the driver is more like being in cruise … but hitting funky wedge shots is more like downshifting into a turn. One shot had a lot of options … but we chose hitting a punch-hook to the right side of the green … it ran out and actually hit the pin … just how we’d discussed. That was fun.

We’re both old … and very aware of our limited time. We want to be present. We want to enjoy every shot on the golf course … not just race through it. We want to really talk to each other … not just half-listen and not care.

A car is very symbolic of a culture. Do we care about actually living in the moment … or are we just trying to get somewhere … and miss the whole point of living?

Well … golf is a great way to get off your phone and get back to living. So is driving … especially a car with a stick-shift.

Cheers!

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com