I had the opportunity to go to heaven on earth this week. My friend Dave took me to a practice round for The Masters Championship at Augusta National. There are few experiences in life that have surpassed my wildest expectations but my visit to Augusta National was among them. The course was stunningly beautiful, pristine but lush with color and textures. The only thing that could have enhanced the experience was to be alone on the course or at least minus about 10,000 other people. The thrill of seeing some of the world’s most famous and talented golfers was just icing on the cake. We ended up sitting for several hours in the grandstand at the 16^th hole. It’s a short water hole surrounded by sand traps. After golfers leave the tee box its traditional for the crowd to yell, “Skip it.” Most golfers comply easily with the request, dropping a golf ball at the edge of the pond and whacking it with an iron to send the ball gently gliding then skipping across the water, hopefully bouncing onto the green. I could have sat there all day into the night. Lin Wen-Tang a golfer from Chinese Taipei didn’t understand the ritual at first and had to be coached by one of the spectators and his caddy on the skipping ritual. Once he understood, he rose excitedly to the challenge and managed to skip a few balls to the delight of the gallery. Fuzzy Zoeller shared his tee time with an 8 year old kid who managed to hit the ball a mile into the water. A group of the younger golfers seem to relish the chance to best their rivals in the group; their joyful competition at the water was delightful to watch.

My visit to Augusta National and my recent attempts to seriously learn to play led me to thinking about the Zen of golf. My experience with the game of golf has taught me that it’s a relentlessly mental game. Each stroke is a unique opportunity to screw up or send the ball flying in exactly the direction you desired at twice the speed you could have imagined. The most challenging part of golf is letting go of the whiffs and the bad shots. I try to get out of my head by running through song lyrics in my mind. I honestly hit the ball better when I’m not thinking about it. I’m starting to understand the concept of muscle memory, gripping the clubs has become more natural and comfortable as I’ve practiced. I struggle to shake off a slump. Several rounds of relentlessly bad play can have such a profound emotional impact that I’m compelled to quit or at least avoid playing for awhile because I feel cursed. I always feel like I’ve lost it and I’ll never hit another good shot again. But…inevitably I hit a good shot and like the first taste of a good Chardonnay I’m hooked all over again. I never understood till now why people seemed obsessed with golf. I couldn’t believe someone would choose to devote an entire day to walking around swinging a club at a ball. That just seemed dumb. Now I find myself eager to repeat my success after a round or correct my mistakes and try again. It’s the only game I’ve ever displayed the slightest aptitude for and I keep thinking maybe if I just keep at this long enough I’ll become a halfway decent golfer. One can dream and I do.

The Fundamentals of Golf

Ready, aim, hit with the grace of a gazelle & the brutality of a schoolmaster
The little white ball goes flying off toward a hole in the dirt, an unnatural thing
While the Spring buzzes & cries around you, Me, me, me
It’s the sound that makes golfers sigh, put down their putters and weep
I’ve seen it happen to the best of them, really
Check it out. They don’t televise tournaments all the time, do they?
they always allow room for weeping & embarassment
Shame hot as the red blossoms of azaleas in Georgia in April
These, these are the fundamentals of golf.

 Dr. Patrick Mullen