Our world is not the same place it was in August when last I penned a piece for this column. Humanity is in the process of defining anew the guiding principles, intentions, and values upon which our world will rest. Golf is a metaphor for life and can be a great teacher at this point in history if approached as an opportunity to learn about living and succeeding amidst both inner and outer hazards.
Each journey through eighteen holes of golf provides abundant opportunity to face down inner fears, to notice if your values are aligned with your behaviors, to display courage when the going gets tough, to define success in a manner that reflects the best of who you are, to call upon your skills to overcome obstacles and hazards, and to develop new skills based on new experiences.
Robert Allenby, following his recent PGA Tour win at the 2001 Marconi Pennsylvania Classic, in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, described the dilemma of wanting to go forward and create a meaningful future while acknowledging the difficulty of doing so. He talked about his lack of concentration on Thursday, Sept. 19th, saying: “I wasn’t even thinking of golf. I was just playing. Playing for the sake of playing and not—I wasn’t concentrating on what I was doing…I was making 15-footers for par just to keep myself going. But I never got any momentum going…I just wasn’t focusing on golf. Golf didn’t seem important. And to tell you the truth, it still doesn’t. When something like [the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th] happens—how could anything be important.”
Then his two-year old son had a birthday and the picture became clear for Allenby: “We had a birthday party for my son who was two years old on Thursday. And, you know, I’ve got a beautiful wife and a beautiful son and that turned my focus around. On Thursday when I walked off the course I said: ‘I just didn’t have any concentration out there. My mind is still on what happened last Tuesday, somehow, for me to go on this week, I’ve got to get my concentration a little bit better and try and focus on what I’m actually here to do.’ And that’s what I did, the last three days. I really did it very well and hit a lot of great golf shots. I just focused really well the last three days.”
What did he do? He described it this way: “The tournament doesn’t begin until the back nine. Doesn’t matter if it’s a major or a normal TOUR event. You’ve still got to go out there and play and keep hitting good shots. You’ve got to stand up there and commit to a shot. I kept my composure and stayed--just stayed in the present and kept hitting good shots. I knew I had a great chance. I knew I was swinging it well coming into this tournament, and putting well, too. I just have to go out there and do it and regain my focus. We’re here to play a golf tournament. Obviously, we’ve got to move on with our lives, but there’s certain things at the moment that just don’t seem important. There’s no doubt about it, this tournament was important to me. I’m over the moon that I won this tournament.”
The key is in the clarity that comes when you recognize and define what is, and what is not, really important in your life. We’re all being asked to approach our lives as if we were playing the final nine holes of a PGA TOUR event—to stand up and commit to a course of action in our personal lives, and as a nation, that is based on a value system that honors humanity, to stay in the present and keep hitting good shots: In other words, to keep doing that which we are good at, to not allow fear to stop us, but rather to act courageously by continuing to swing the club, continuing to move forward and do our part to create a meaningful, healthy, successful future.
There’s the real value in what golf has to teach us.
Dr. Paula King is a licensed sports psychologist in private practice in Phoenix. Specializing in work with golfers, her clients include professionals and amateurs. Comments or questions?
Dr. Paula King, Golf’s “Head” Coach®, is a licensed sports psychologist, specializing in golf, based in Phoenix, Arizona, and can be reached at (602) 862-0032. E-mail: paula@drheadcoach.com