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One Under Par
Volume 6, number 4

A Newsletter fromKeyGolf.....August, 2005

Is Golf Like Life?

Is golf really like life? Or is life more like the golf games we hear about? We've heard the metaphor used and used it ourselves. But does it still hold true? After all is said and done, we may want to hold out and hope it is not either of those. There is reason to believe that we may want to look around for some new defintions, instead.

Well, folks. The news, at least, is consistent. School gangs are in, meth is coming from Mexican super “factories,” serial killers are on the loose, there's a war still going on, national fear is at its peak since the insurgents are ahead in that mental game if not any other way, gas prices are out of sight and still rising, ethics in government, honesty and integrity in police work are both suspect if not downright questionable, health care is no longer on the affordable list, legal medications are becoming economically unfeasable but still being prescribed, with the side effects being worse than the ills they are purported to cure. So this writer finds it a bit on the mundane side to attempt to speak of the mental game for golf at the moment.

And to top that off, speaking of the mental game, about all we find are players and others who are so thoroughly commited to the notion that everything in life is “conscious” and can be controlled consciously if you only put your mind to it, that we find avenues of hope in very doubtful and dire straits. If you pause to really look around carefully, you will see a world full of people (who vote, by the way) unaware of what's really going on. The awareness vacuum appears to be coming from a widespread, if not total absence of any sense of history and no sense at all of the driving forces in human life. That strongly suggests that we are in for a whole new world - full of trouble - that no one bothered to predict unless you go back to Orwell's “1984,” which may be coming true in 2005.

That has been a strangely omnipresent attitude increasingly noticeable the past couple of months, even coming from those whose backgrounds indicate they should indeed know better and be urgently acknowledging that, and even becoming promoters of well-being and health. But they do not engage in either of those behaviors - and they don't appear to know that and certainly are not speaking out. The only ones who seem to be speaking out turn out to be moralists who claim to know all the answers and show no comprehension of even the most basic questions.

It seems we have made a transition into a world of “Big Brother, Survival, and Reality Shows” (whatever ”reality” is supposed to represent, and in the case of the media definition, it is more hype than reality). And make no mistake - that has flooded into everything including our golf games, since life is not really compartmentalized, notwithstanding many try to make it so. It is integrated for good or for bad. Guess which way we see it going, or coming, as the case may be.

It is only necessary to watch Jay Leno interview the under 30 group and see the prominent display of knowledge dysfunction - also known as ignorance - to get a grip on a prediction of what the world will be in another 20 years. Those people not only vote, but they will shortly run for public office, which will be even more attractive since politics is currently exercised as the epitomy of the “me” generation ethos.

But that doesn't bother me nearly as much as the silence of those who could be doing something about it. My close confidants, who are first hand observers, tell me that even our school systems are full of teachers who do not know how to teach (and are apparently uncaring about that, since most are tenured already) and many of them certainly know nothing of managing their students and monitoring their behavior. (One we heard about sits in front of her class and eats candy while class is in session). Hardly a day goes by without some mention of vandalism in some school nearby, and school bus drivers have a daily skirmish on their hands trying to drive their buses and keep the peace. Perhaps you are wondering, as we are, where are the parents? Has the “me” part of it already caught and passed them, and us, as well?

Parents worry about their kids on the street, but no one seems to go there to check that out either. So who cares about the mental game? We do, but it does make us stop to wonder about our own and others' priorities. Is it like this everywhere? Is the rest of the world engaged in the kind of social “war” we are seeing? Or is our window too small?

Because we have encountered a recent and unusual escalation in the mentality that can't distinguish the trees from the forest and vice versa, we decided to engage in this outburst, and hope that we can all see that if such as this does succeed in invading our golf games, it may not be worth the gas it takes to go a course that has a first tee. However you look at it, there is certainly at point at which the question may arise on that first tee: “What in blazes am I doing here?”

On the other hand, of course, is the need for re-creation, and golf holds a place for that. If it affords you an opportunity for perspective, go for it. But if it is just letting you off the hook for four hours, maybe it's time to rethink your strategy.

Meanwhile, use your clear key.

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