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…