PEA RIDGE — Golf’s toughest fairway, the five inches between your ears!
Idiot! That was so stupid! I knew I was going to do that!
@#*$! Sound familiar? Golf just seems to find a way to bring out the dark side of most of us.
The great Bobby Jones once said: “Golf is a game that is played on a 5-inch course - the distance between your ears.”
I can give a good example of that in my own golf game.
On April 22, 2012, I was on the 12th tee box leading a Golf Channel AM Tour event. As I stepped up on the tee box, I remember thinking, “The wind is blowing 30 mph from left to right, how am I going to keep this in the fairway?” Well, after four tee shots out of bounds and a score of a 12 on that par 4, my words came back to bite me. I lost the tournament by four shots. On theother side of the coin, this past week end, I was leading another GCAM event after 14 holes and I said to myself, just par out and you got this.
Just one shot at a time. Well, I made par on all four holes and won the tournament.
My mind set was completely opposite.
When my wife Kim and I got married, she taught me very important principle.
One day I happened to say something negative about myself and she said to me, “Do not underestimate the power of your words.” I have thought of that often while playing golf. Today, almost all professional golfers have a sports psychologist as part of their team. Lucky for me, I have my wife!
The next time you look down the fairway and all you see are the trees to the left and water to the right, back off and take a new look. Seenothing but the beautiful green fairway. Look at this way, when you saw your wife for the first time, you weren’t focused on all the other women around her.
All you could see was your target!
One last thought:
Green fees at a PGA course - $195
New Taylormade Driver - $399
Drinks for your buddies after a hole-in-one - $100
Being in contention on the last hole, and keeping your approach shot out of the greenside ditch - PRICELESS!
◊◊◊
Guest columnist Jerry Robinson is the postmaster at Pea Ridge Post Office, a fisherman and golfer. He can be contacted at eatsleepfish@ cox.net.
Opinion, Pages 6 on 07/18/2012