Another Lesson from Golf

Golf, when played correctly I believe, is much more a game of the mind (and there are lots of other people who have said this, I don’t count this as any sort of epiphany). Look at it this way. Not counting practice swings, based on my score for 9 holes, I swung a club 45 times. It takes less than 30 seconds to actually swing any club. So conservatively I spent 22.5 minutes physically swinging clubs.  The average travel time (ball strike to ball stop) of 20 secs on those 45 swings is another 22.5 minutes. Total is 45 minutes. On average, I spend 90-100 minutes on the course. That means that I spend the remining 45-55 minutes traveling from swing to swing. By percentage (using 100 minutes for ease) that is:

            22.5% of time spent actively singing

            22.5% of time spent watching the ball travel

            55% of time spent walking or standing looking at the next shot

During the walking and the watching (77.5%) time, I am thinking about the game. While I am watching, I am critiquing the swing that just happened. What went well, what could have gone better, if I selected the right club, etc. While I am walking or standing, I am planning the next shot. How far is it, where is the ball sitting and how will it affect my shot, how should I adjust, do I club up or club down? Once I get into my stance, I spend 15-20 seconds adjusting my position and shifting my feet and club by inches and degrees.

Once I take a shot, I will often think, I could have done that better (I imagine many people have that thought right after doing something) and then I put down another ball to see if I can do it better. I still play the first shot (usually 😊) but I try another ball or two. I noticed today, that of all the times I did that, most of the time, the re-shot was not as good as the first shot. As I was driving home, I was thinking about why that is.

For the initial attempt, I have the think time as I walked from the previous shot, measured the distance, selected the club, set up my stance, and prepared to swing. This amounts to a lot of seconds of thinking and planning. For the re-take, I have maybe 5-10 seconds from the last shot to the retake. I didn’t complete the preparation process. Even when I think I am slowing down, I am still rushing the whole process. As a result, the second shot, however well-intentioned, is usually far worse than the first shot.

As I sit here typing, it occurs to me that this may be same problem with my putting game. I spend far more time on my approach shots than I do on my putts. Again, I didn’t complete the process. I rushed. And when I miss the first putt, I get frustrated and instead of slowing down, I rush them even more.

I am more effective when I plan for the shots I take. My game improves when I slow down and take the time to analyze the situation and prepare. I am less effective when I shoot from the hip or act rashly.

In most non-emergency situations, you have the luxury of time for planning. The question is, do you use it? Over the past 8 months, I have been taking the time to think through many facets of my life. I have done far more thinking than acting. When I have acted, I felt much more confident in my decisions, even the ones that didn’t go as planned.

In my golf game, even the best planned shots don’t go as planned for a variety of reasons. In those cases, I walk to the shot and figure out how to most effectively get back on course. For the past 20 years, I have thought that this meant grabbing the strongest club I had and trying to muscle the shot to the green. Turns out, sometimes it’s better to take a short shot that doesn’t seem very far (or maybe even backwards) but lines you up with the hole for a better next shot. In this case the planning for this shot is planning for the shot after that. So it is with life. Even the best laid plan may have a hiccup in execution that leaves you have to figure out how to “get back on the fairway.” Be bold and be brave and recognize that sometimes you have to step back to step forward.

To circle back to the main point. Plaaning is the key. Just because the last attempt didn’t go according to plan doesn’t mean you should abandon the process of planning. It just means you have to tweak something in your execution. When I have a bad swing after planning, sometimes it’s just a bad swing. I turned my hands wrong, I didn’t come straight down on the follow-through, or a dozen the other things. Failure is just another opportunity to practice planning.

Are there places in your life where you are swinging the club, but the ball isn’t going where you want it to? Look at how you are planning the shot. Are you aiming the club in the correct direction? Do you have the correct club for the distance you want the ball to travel? The action itself is not as important as how you plan for that action. Take time to plan and prepare instead of just swinging your most powerful club!