Eagle 2 - a golf blog written by Fred Poli, a financial adviser who also teaches and trains in that industry. Bio below but, for now, please enjoy Fred's article!
It
had been a fairly bad round. Lately, I just had not been playing as much golf as I
would have liked.
I managed to par the par-3, 17th and hit my best
drive of the day right down the middle on the eighteenth, a short par-4. My
playing partner also hit driver but pulled it into the water on the left hand
side of the green.
Classic risk reward hole. As I sized up my twenty-five yard chip, he
joked about my straight forward eagle. Bad joke... I have never had an eagle.
Never.
Then a strange serenity came over me.
I saw the chip.
I addressed the
ball and put a good stroke on it. It never looked like missing.
Just
like that, things change. That’s golf, the greatest sport in the world.
Why?
I
have thought about that a lot. It’s many things.
It’s the only sport in the
world where you can take it up at any age and basically play until you can no
longer stand. It’s the only sport in the
world where people of any standard can compete on the same “arena”. It’s the
only sport in the world where if you break a rule, calling a penalty on
yourself is considered the norm. It’s wonderful exercise. It’s a great social
activity. It can be equally enjoyed by both genders. And so much more.....
The
thing I love most about golf is the mental challenge. I have learned more about
myself playing golf than through any other pursuit...and I did not take the game
up until I was fifty years old.
Yes, we have opponents. Yes, I am competitive, but golf is a
battle with yourself...at least that is what I always believed. Now, of course,
I have come to learn that it is not a battle but a learning process that never
ends; a perfect partner to everything else that you have going on in your life.
To think that I almost gave up in the beginning because, like all great things
in life, there are prices to pay.
Golf has two main obstacles.
Firstly, it’s
very time consuming to learn and to play it. That is an issue for a later
article. Secondly, it’s a very difficult
game to play well.
Fortunately,
David Capaldo, teaching pro at Kingswood Golf Club, taught me how to play this
wonderful game. This is a must because for every Bubba Watson there are
millions of golfers who will never enjoy the game because they simply don’t
learn the fundamentals of hitting the ball.
So, if you have a set of old golf clubs collecting dust, or even if you have never
played, get out there, book some lessons. I want you to experience the feeling
of an eagle. I am still soaring.
Are you a golf beginner? Have you thought of quitting the sport but, after a miraculous shot or round kept playing to stick with, and enjoy, the game?
Let us hear your story either here on Golf for Beginners blog, on @Golf4Beginners on Twitter ...and LIKE on Facebook.
Let us hear your story either here on Golf for Beginners blog, on @Golf4Beginners on Twitter ...and LIKE on Facebook.
Fred Poli BIO:
Fred has a Diploma in Counselling and Communication from the Australian College of Applied Psychology and as much as he has learned in this field, he feels that his best life teacher has been the game of golf.
Mr. Poli took up the game at age fifty and is fortunate to play in one of the best golf areas on earth, the so called “sand belt” of Melbourne Australia wher he is a member of Kingswood Golf Club and plays off 19.
