Where do you find solace when you’re at your wit’s end? Does it come from long walks? Do you find it from being around the ones you love? Is it in the books you read, or in the ideas of others? What is the place you retreat to when life has you feeling overwhelmed?
I always retreated to the golf course. Playing team sports growing up, I couldn’t understand why the other kids didn’t practice and play like it was life or death. If you weren’t there to give everything you had to avoid the pain of losing and experience the joy of winning, what reason did you have for being there? This is why golf appealed to me. There’s no one to answer to but yourself. You are in control of every swing and every decision. How much you practice, how much you play, and the level of intensity you devote to improving is entirely up to you.
I found a special freedom out there on the course: the long hours you have when you play by yourself offers time for introspection. You find out what you’re truly made of when you have a bad day on the course, and trust me, you’ll have plenty of them, but there’s always that one shot when you catch the ball just right and know before you even look up that it’s going to go exactly where you visualized it. The feeling is so pure you can feel it reverberate in your soul. It’s that feeling which keeps you coming back for more.