An Old Man’s Sport

Everyone says golf is an old man’s sport and that there is no point to the game. They say all you do is pay for stupid expensive clubs and drinks and take hours to play a few holes. But there’s more to it than that, at least for me. I learned more from golf than from school, it taught me how to be patient, accountable, persevere, and how to gamble, but more importantly, it taught me many life lessons. And I know that these are some life lessons that everyone should at least hear because most of these lessons I learned were from gentlemen and women that are older, that have lived a long life, and who can teach you all the mistakes they made. So although you don’t have to follow everything I say and do today I’d like everyone to at least listen and think about some of these ideas that I’ve been told over the years.

Almost everyone should know the saying “Life is what you make of it, it could be long and boring, or short and full of memories, do with it what you want.” it’s true we genuinely are in control of our lives, so find the balance of life that you want to live and have as many memories as you want or have as many regrets as you want, it’s up to you. 

But what’s less known from people is that golf teaches you patients and perseverance because it forces you to deal with your environment and focus on what you’re going to not let it affect you, and that you need to keep playing through no matter if you feel like throwing your clubs into the pound. And then when you try to get fancy and play a tricky shot it and put it in the woods and lose your ball you learn accountability pretty quickly because golf balls are too expensive to waste, so you better learn to play the right shot. I also learned how to gamble really quickly and the ideas or risks to reward, in life, you’re gonna need to learn to take risks and you also need to know your confidence level, you need to learn how you can deal with different situations and how to make the best shot or how to set yourself up for the win. I’ve won so much cash because people get too cocky and take risks too big for themselves, and likewise, I used to lose cash until I learned how to play smart but risky. And the biggest thing I learned is that things most things in life are a love-hate relationship, I can go from playing the best round of my life ready to break the course record, and then on one simple hole, I can lose it all just as quickly. Same with school I love learning and talking with people, but I hate the schoolwork and I hate being stuck in the building all day, but that diploma sounds pretty good so I stick with it. 

There’s an unwritten rule in golf called a “Breakfast ball”  everyone should live by the breakfast ball. The breakfast ball is a rule that if you’re starting a round of golf and you mess up horribly with your shot that you can either take the shot you have now, or you can tee up another ball and forget that shot and play another one. Please, everyone, live by a breakfast ball, because you are going to make mistakes in life, but you need to forget about the mistakes and worry about what can you do differently or how can I fix this. 

The one mistake so many people make in life is worrying too much about how to please others or what people are gonna think about them. So then they get to a point in life where they say “I’m too old to care.” you don’t need to always worry about other people, now this doesn’t mean you need to be selfless and inconsiderate but it does say that you don’t have to care all the time about others. And sometimes it’s good to do things just for you. 

One of the most important phrases I learned from people over years of golf and actually helped me a lot with my game and with things outside of golf, is “drive for show, putt for dough”. This means no matter if you start off further or better than everyone else, the only thing that really matters is how you finish your work. Please let that sink in. It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish. 

Thank you for listening to me talk about golf and I hope everyone takes at least one piece of advice from this speech even if it was as simple as how to gamble. Because trust me you can win a lot if you know yourself.

“Golfing” by Tord Sollie is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.