The Beauty of the Game

The Beauty of the Game

Greetings Golfers, 

In the 1991 Masters Par 3 Tournament, 78-year-old Sam Snead lost in a playoff.

Think about how amazing that is.

Should we all swing like Snead? Maybe … if we could. I can’t … he was way more flexible than I am. He could kick out the top of a doorway. I could only kick out the door handle.

So … I have to move around more than Snead. It’s that simple.

Why we always need to make everyone and everything fit into “perfect” models is not how I look at life.

People are unique.

However, impact is not relative. Well … GOOD impact is not relative. It is truth.

We seem to have confused this issue. We seem to believe that everyone is the same … so everyone should have the same swing. And … that impact is relative.

I think this misguided way of looking at the golf swing is symbolic to how we are looking at everything.

This same way of thinking would look at the staff of Deer Run as everyone is the same. Just a number … to be easily replaced … and trained-in to the system.

Many years ago … I was the Pro and working for a GM. One day, the GM told me that when he worked in the theatre … that everyone from the “star to the one carrying the spear” learned each other’s roles. And he wanted to do the same here at the golf course.

So I said “You want Tim - our Superintendent - to run the restaurant … and Barb - who runs the restaurant - to give golf lessons … and Kat - the bookkeeper - to be the Superintendent???”

That’s what he wanted. I told him that was setting people up for failure.

Making everyone try to swing like Sam Snead is the same thing. Think that would have worked for Lee Trevino?

However … Snead and Trevino look the same at impact.

Not everything is relative. Impact is not relative.

And there are many ways to get there. That’s what’s relative.

I think that we’ve flipped this upside-down about everything. Math is a good example. There is one answer to a math problem. Instead, we’re hung-up on the process to solve the problem.

One time in high school … my geometry teacher commented that it looked like I hadn’t opened my book. He was right. The next day taking the test … I had to figure out the problems while taking the test. If I had been graded on the process - I would have failed. Fortunately, I figured out the right answers.

Shouldn’t school be about learning how to think?

Isn’t America about the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave”?

Or … are we turning into the “Land of the Brain-washed and the Home of the Compliant”?

I see golf as the antidote to the madness. Hit it to your target. Find it. Deal with it.

And figure out how to make it work.

That’s the beauty of the game.

Cheers!

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