“Every shot counts. The three-foot putt is as important as the 300-yard drive.”
Henry Cotton
One other facet of this game is it exposes something in our own nature that each of us are most prone towards: that is, taking shortcuts. This inbred quality is inside each of us that has its eyes set on the vain hope of attempting to take the easy way out. Of pretty much anything. Cutting corners or just plain laziness are other ways of putting it. Like not having to teach a child how to lie, if there is an easy way out of something we are experiencing, then we’ll jump at the chance. Who wouldn’t? It’s fundamental – for all of us.
Golf, on the other hand, teaches us not only are shortcuts not permitted, but they simply do not and can not work. Have you ever tried taking a half backswing on the tee box? You would probably notice your drive won’t go as far had you taken a full backswing. Even Tony Finau takes it a little bit past the half-way mark. In the same way you can’t cheat yourself in golf you can’t cheat your way through life. You either discover this or it discovers you.
Another aspect in playing this game is it straightens-out our own misaligned thinking patterns. We all have these flaws in our headspace and nothing has the power to bring these to the surface more than playing a round of golf. Preferably 18 holes but even a quick nine will suffice.
In other words, the quickest way to get an immediate assessment of where your thoughts are at and how mentally-tough you think are at any given moment is to put a metal-shafted club in your hands and go for a long, winding walk outside one of Mother Nature’s most innocent and finest-looking playgrounds. Trust me, you’ll see, and the results will be staggering, if not alarming for you. In fact, I think all counsellors and psychologists should prescribe their initial intake patient exam of playing a round of golf. Just the two of them. For eighteen holes. That way, the mind doctor would find out everything they need to know going forward – for the patient and themselves.
Dwight Van Middlesworth 