Month: April 2021

[T]he plan today was just go out and do my best for 18 holes. That was my thought throughout the day — just keep doing my best. Do my best.

Hideki Matsuyama, 2021 Masters Champion (1)

That sweet spot on the club face. Man, oh man!

That is what keeps us all coming back to this game of golf.

Just to be clear, (as if I really need to say this, right?) the sweet spot is hitting your golf ball in the dead centre of the golf club you are hitting.

Often, just hitting it once during a round of golf (9 or 18 holes) is enough to keep anyone coming back to the course and to try and do it again.

There are many feelings we experience when this happens. It’s: exhilarating and exciting; fantastic and phenomenal. Simply put, it is pretty sweet. Oh yes, it sure is!

This type of experience, in my opinion, is right up there, if only just a little bit behind, the ultimate gaol of getting a hole-in-one for any golfer.

True, the odds are much better at hitting the centre of the club face than the other, but the sensation is essentially the same. And I believe that it was designed for this purpose. Golf is a lot things; however, singularly, it is this experienced feeling that heightens the drama and enjoyment of the game. I for one am testament of this.

Hitting the sweet spot feels about as elusive as it does to actually hit a hole-in-one. In that, one can’t predict when it will happen or if it ever will during the course of play. There seems to be no aspect of planning or timing for these events to coincide. It just happens. And then, it’s over. About as quickly as it came. And then we move on to the next shot, or hole, looking to repeat the same shot-feeling as before. For most of us, we soldier on, for what feels like and can actually be quite a disparity of time.

Because golf and life seem to be so interconnected our ultimate aim in life is to find our own sweet spot. That is, to find our groove for that one thing that keeps us coming back to live our life well; both consistently and day-after-day. There are many words used to describe this, such as passion, calling, gifting, etc. Above them all is our concerted effort to discover and then do what we were created for. To achieve our purpose, in other words. That is the ultimate shot in life — for yours as it is mine.

Notes:

(1) https://www.masters.com/en_US/news/articles/2021-04-11/matsuyama_carves_his_place_in_history.html. Accessed April 18th, 2021.