The Worlds Toughest Sport is......Golf?

Growing up in the country you always had to improvise when you wanted to get a game going. If you wanted to play baseball you used cow patties for the bases. For Basketball you had half a sheet of plywood for a back board and a home made rim out in the dirt by the chicken house. Golf was easy because all you needed was a ball, a club, and a mound of dirt for a tee. You didn't have to hit the ball into a hole, you just hit it, then had to go and find it.

Now there is grown up golf. The hardest sport ever! Holding steady as you swing to ensure that the club face stays square, and the ball fly's straight on target. Well ... sometimes! If you look up too soon the ball goes ten feet. If you are late and the face is open a tenth of a millimeter, you slice. Early and closed, you pull it! A gnats ass this way, a hair that way, missed it by that much! Ahhhhhhh! When I took up golfing again several years ago I hadn't played in fifteen years. Back then I wasn't really playing that much, probably two or three times a year. Hadn't thought about golf since. So a couple of years ago I am invited to play in a charity tournament at one of the top courses in the valley. I dust off my clubs and head to the driving range to see what my level of humiliation will be.

So I hit a bucket the day before and I don't feel too bad because the ball is going straight and frankly I don't know enough about the sport to know if I am doing something wrong. Try to hit the ball in the hole in the lowest number of swings. That's the bottom line, right? What I was never taught, (having only one thirty minute lesson ever) in my previous attempt to play was the oh let's say a million tiny details of the golf swing! When I listen to announcers discuss the professional players golf swing it is mind boggling. How can you possibly remember all of that in the few seconds it takes to wind up and swing? And that's the easy stuff off of the tee. Never mind the up hill lie, ball below your feet, in the divot, the rough, the fring, the sand traps, the trees, awkward stance, somebody stop me!!! Hitting the ball into a water hazard can be a relief. I have played many, many sports, and have never come close to the level of frustration as I have most every time I play golf!

I got fitted for clubs and bought new ones, irons, driver, putter. The works! I have improved and my best score to date is an 89. My golfing buddies say I expect a lot for someone who golfs once a month. Sorry that doesn't make me feel better. I am competitive. I WANT TO WIN! I WANT TO MASTER THIS GAME! I want to be able to go out on any given day and shoot a decent score. No three putts, no quadruple bogeys, no lost balls! Golf is played out in the fresh air, in beautiful surroundings, with friends, or whom ever you get paired with. You should be relaxed, breath in, breath out. Ahhhhhh! SO WHY DOES SOMEONE IN THE FOURSOME ALWAYS HAVE FLAMES COMING FROM THEIR HEAD???? Aha! the brain. There it is. Golf is a mental sport, sure you have to be able to swing the club, but that's just one more of golfs little treats. A nice easy swing and you hit 300, swing for the moon and have just one little thing off and 260. It defies physics. Got to figure that one out.

Again the Brain. You have to keep all of the mechanics of the swing in order, as well as having the mental covered. The stress factors. Just imagine lining up on an 8 footer for 800K. My head hurts just thinking about it. Some day I want to take my kids golfing. To walk in the sun, take in the scenery, breath in the air, and to enjoy just being with them. But wait, not yet, not until I get a better handle on things. I want to laugh with them, to help them learn the sport, and to show them first hand, why after every round I come home and say, The Worlds toughest sport is absolutely GOLF! BigBlogAlphaDog.