Today I saw something that I don’t think many, including the most experienced broadcasters and commentators of golf even have. It was a shot by Tiger Woods from US Masters that he won this year. If you don’t know much about him, suffice it to say that he is by far the greatest golf player and this according to the people of knowledge, of golf at least. The shot I am talking about you can download here and watch it for yourself. At first, when I saw him hit the ball and considering where it landed, I thought ok, this is to show us mortals and Tiger wanna be folks that he too can make flagrant mistakes on the course and was about to shut down the media player as I see the ball rolling towards the hole. Ok, so you can’t see the third dimension on TV I thought, but this can’t be. And it kept rolling. I won’t tell you the ending of this movie but I am sure you can guess it.

Which brings me to the whole idea of watching golf on TV. I remember there was a time I could not stand golf and I thought it was something to maybe try when I am bored at the age of 80, if I live that long. Never mind watching it on TV. During a summer vacation in California, I went with a couple of friends to a golf range and tried it out since they were telling me it is not that easy and sure enough, I had not hit more than 10 shots before I knew I was hooked even though I had not hit more than max two out of the 10 shots decently. You want to know what it was? Simply put, it’s that shot when you hit the very sweet spot of the club and you feel it throughout your body. THAT is the shot that gets you hooked and you can’t resist it. And the funny part is that I didn’t even try to hit the ball hard, yet it flies the furthest. In other words, this is not a sport to get rid of your frustrations since it will just add to them. Serenity and calm is the key to success.

It is funny looking back at it now, having had such a change of heart as I am so passionate about the sport now and literarily spent every waking hour for three summers on the golf course when I started learning during university years. It’s unlike anything else I have learned in life as it takes so much patience and time. Nothing I have experienced, including new languages has taken such a long time and required so much patience to master and improve in. But you get small rewards as you go along, just big enough to keep you hooked on. I also enjoy watching it on the TV now as I truly can appreciate the skills that the pros have.

There is so much I can say about it, but really it comes down to the fact that you can only explain so much before it has to be tried…just remember this, the harder you try, the less chance you are going to have for success. Breath deeply, relax, step up to the ball and firmly, yet gently fire away…