Eighteen holes of match or medal play will teach you more about your foe than will 18 years of dealing with him across a desk. ~Grantland Rice
Duncan has learned that.
Funny thing about golf. It will also teach you about yourself.
The game is humbling. Even Tiger Woods hits bad shots. Recently. Several in a single round. And I don’t mean that they are simply bad shots compared to how he usually hits the ball. I mean they are bad shots even by the standards of weekend golfers.
What Tiger and other Tour pros miss out on is the exhilaration we duffers feel when we hit a really good shot–one that comes off the clubface with that unmistakable feel, and the precise trajectory we envisioned, landing just the way we wanted it to, exactly where we wanted it to land. Tour pros expect all that every time they swing the club. The rest of us simply hope for it.
That is why we learn about our playing partners. It is very difficult to keep your own thoughts and emotions hidden in such circumstances. I have never broken par, even for nine holes. But I’ve come close. And there have been many times when I shot one or two strokes over par on the front nine and then played the back ten over. Jekyll and Hyde. It is not an uncommon thing.
Think of the range of emotions in doing something like that. First there is the boost that comes with confidence in yourself. Then there can be the nagging doubts about whether it is actually happening. Then, a resignation that it will all soon end. Finally, it happens. I’ve seen PBS many, many times–Post-Birdie Syndrome. Someone finishes a hole with a tough birdie, then scores double-bogey, or worse, on the very next hole.
For those of you who don’t play the game, consider a night out on the town with your high school or college buddies. These are people you know well, or so you think. Until the drinking begins. Some drunks are passive, some are belligerent. Some get quiet, others get very vocal. Yet you will often see one or two that go through the entire cycle of personas.
That’s what you see on the golf course.
What you find, though, is that most people deal with the ups and downs quite well. Others throw things. Some joke about their own play. Some get very quiet when things are going well and some get very quiet when things are going poorly.
If you, like Grantland Rice, are a student of social interaction, I cannot think of a better place for research than the golf course.
(HT BogeyLounge)