Monday, April 4, 2011

Eyes on the Prize

"Golf is played by twenty million mature American men whose wives think they are out having fun."

As the preseason continues to plow mercilessly toward the impending doom that will be my first round of golf of the year, I find myself constantly learning and re-learning the same basic lessons over and over again. I mean it makes sense. As I try to get this damned golf swing perfected, I'm constantly trying to keep about 1,000 little facts, tips and concepts organized in my head. I think about keeping the left arm straight. That's a big one. It keeps everything aligned and guarantees that you will hit the ball correctly. Unless of course, you screw up one of the other 1,000 things that you are supposed to do that guarantees that you will hit the ball correctly.

On one of not nearly enough days of practice, I'm at the driving range and thinking, "What the hell am I doing wrong THIS time?" Just then, a cavalcade of youngsters come in for their afternoon lesson. It was about 15-20 teenagers. Now I'm thinking, "Great. These kids are just going to come in and disrupt my concentration. I was hitting the ball SO well. But NOW, they're going to be the ones that jinx it." (Yes, I can be more than a bit delusional on the golf course)

But then, an interesting thing happened. I was able to eavesdrop on one of the instructors and he seemed to tell one of the kids something that I had always known but had completely forgotten to do. In the course of trying to get the 1,000 things straight in my head, I WASN'T LOOKING AT THE BALL. I mean, C'MON!!! Logic only follows that, unless you have super-powers (which I don't) you would probably have to look at something if you're going to try and hit it with a very thin stick. Just a hunch.

So I took this piece of advice and wouldn't you know it, I immediately hit the ball better! It was the miracle of miracles and such a wonderful experience...for about 5 minutes. Then things went horribly, horribly wrong...again.

Back to the drawing board.

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