Vibe

Vibe

Greetings Golfers,

Remember that song “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys? Well, it came out 60 years ago …but I think a lot of people who know the song weren’t around in 1966.

The writer of the song - Brian Wilson - was into ESP and other 60’s type stuff. Wilson said that he got the idea from his mom. When he was a kid, she told him that dogs could judge people by their vibrations.

I agree with his mom. And I think little kids are good at picking up on people’s vibrations.

So why are so many adults so bad at it?

Because we train ourselves to shut-off our instincts and become mechanical.

I use the GPS on our carts … but I try to figure out the distance before I look at the screen. I try to predict the time before I look at a clock. I try to predict our daily revenue before my staff runs a total on our computer.

I also do goofy little physical things all day to try to develop my "feel."

Physical feel and instincts and intuition and judgement are all related and intertwined.

You can tell how far from trusting gut instincts a society is by how much they worship celebrities.

A healthy society admires heroes … people who have courage and do the right things for the right reasons.

Celebrities are usually the opposite of heroes. In fact, I was reading about celebrities who wouldn’t even let their staff look them in the eye. What???

These creeps want to be worshipped.

If you really want to know about a celebrity … read what their staff says about them. The staff always knows.

The other day a bunch of us were talking about vibe. Someone said that you can fake a lot of things … but you can’t fake vibe.

Back to celebrities. The ones who always had “fun” dancing at the start of their shows were usually the meanest to their staff. Their phony acts of fun seemed obvious … but it must work because these “people” were/are adored and glorified.

As much as the mechanics in life have to be good … the culture has to be good.

Last week I was talking to two brothers who are college football coaches. And they were talking about how the culture mattered even more than the Xs and Os.

Life cannot be run off of spreadsheets.

The spread sheets are valuable information. The yardage on the GPS is valuable information. But you have to FEEL the shot to make it work.

So … work on your feel. In everything. And trust your gut. Then … use your logic to understand what your gut is telling you.

It’s both … gut and logic. Otherwise, we’re vulnerable to being manipulated.

Remember that old saying about the Roman Empire … “Bread and Circuses”? Well, the Romans kept the people distracted with free food and circuses while they controlled everything.

Well as usual … golf is the key to developing your feel and logic.

And trust good vibrations!

Cheers!

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