Golfing through the Game of Life

So that's it....
just put the ball in the hole.
That's the game of golf. Only you have start more than 100 yards away and with metal plates on sticks, club your way onto the green to put the ball in the cup.  Right?

True Story.  Just accept it. I visited some good friends recently and when asked what I wanted to do--I said, "You're the big time golfer.  Take me out and let me watch you" I always revel in feeling the passion of people challenged by their sport. This guy loves golf and can walk onto an Executive PGA Course from his front door. 

Now I have not played since high school. I just wanted to watch him.  But after the first hole, his joy in golf was contagious.  I dropped a ball on the very edge of the green and stepped up to putt.  After he told me everything I was doing wrong AND then what to do right--I was lucky to even hit the ball. Hit it I did as we watched the ball glide the 50ft right into the cup. "Well," he said unflappable, "You did everything I told you to do!" 

On another hole, we gave way to three players who did not look much better than me.  The first two guys shot off the course in different directions--the sawed off shotgun approach, my friend said.  Then the woman in the trio stepped up ti to the T for women, who as we know cannot hit as far as guys and therefore need a handicap My friend commented that all three looked handicapped.

So she teed off and hit a line drive more than two hundred yards...and we both watched it hit the ground, slide like a shot across the green--hit the pole dead on before dropping into the cup. Yes, eat your words for this hole in one.  I'd never seen one before in person; neither had my experienced friend.  As she walked up to the green to claim the ball, she smiled and said, "Just 3 years I have been at this game! 

So maybe physics can give the exact formula so that both my long putt and the hole in one can be explained.  But let's face it and admit the random luck for both of us--certainly more for her!  I wonder--how many of us club our way through life, hacking at the ball not knowing quite where it will land. 

I'd say this much.  We all walk the course of life. We can just let things fall the way they do and take the next shot. Or, we can find the way to focus who we are, what we love and have a passion for, and then direct it toward the purpose for being out there in the first place.  Forget what happened.  I found what I was looking for--the passion and zeal of the man I was with which goes beyond golf.  Hitting my putt and then watching the hole in one reminded me how special life is--though uncertain--but not why we go out onto the course to begin with.  We play the game of life because it demands the most of us and draws the best from us.