If you play golf you know what you’re getting into every time you tee it up.
You know when you start a round that it’ll be an unknown adventure.
You know that however you feel you have no idea how you will play.
You know you will hit some good shots and some bad shots.
You know you will make some good putts and some not so good putts.
You know you will experience some good fortune and some fortune that is not good at all.
There will be moments of exhilaration and moments of despair.
When the round is over you will be satisfied or disappointed.
Or both.
The one thing for sure, is that you’ll be back.
That won’t ever change.
Golfers all want to play better.
They’ll do anything to play better
They may take lessons from a local pro.
They might even go online and view videos of pros trying to fix their problems.
They might view many, many videos.
They might try a thousand things.
All to get better.
Years ago, I admitted I went online, in frustration, to improve my swing and my game.
I googled “the easiest golf swing”.
I found a fellow named Brian Sparks, who was based in Great Britain.
I contacted him and got to know him.
I even visited him, with Jamie, for in person instruction.
I have to tell you he helped both of us.
Tremendously. It was mostly about swinging with a lack of tension which ruins anyone’s golf swing.
There was more, of course, not technical and mechanical things, which also might hurt more than help people like us (seniors), but overall it was refreshing.
Unfortunately, Brian passed away from a long illness last February at the age of 71.
He was a wonderful gentleman.
Brian was the leader of a group of “coaches” in Europe who were believers in his theory.
One of them, Julian Mellor, has emerged, in his own right as an outstanding teacher who realizes it is foolish to try to copy the golf swing of a touring professional, and sees no value in making the swing more complicated than it needs to be.
He is not about mechanics.
Julian’s program is called Proper Golfing, which has corralled over 5 and a half million views on YouTube.
This is not a commercial, by the way, but if he helped us, which he has in the past, and did again on a visit to London, he can help anybody.
What’s wrong with that?
What was fascinating about his story, was that Jillian Mellor set out to return to playing tournaments recently after retiring to become a teaching pro 14 years ago. He still is a teacher No 1, but wanted to give tournament action another shot as well to see where he stood.
He experienced problems, he related, that would enable him to identify what you and I experience when we play a round with our friends.
Whether it’s a situation that produces more nervousness or tension, or any of the myriad of issues that pop up when we play, he could answer questions with empathy because he’s once again been there.
At the start, I reeled off a laundry list of things about this great game that are the facts of life in golf.
One item I failed to disclose, is the enjoyment of playing a golf course, and all it entails.
It may be a public course that has been the scene of over a thousand rounds, with fairways that are marked by grass conditions of all kinds.
Your friendly course may have bunkers that haven’t been raked properly, or greens that may be too slow for your liking.
It doesn’t matter. This is they course you love, the course you play, the course you still have to conquer.
If you play at a club, the conditions may be better, but those of us all know what golf courses look like, and play like in this country.
But you’ve all seen on television, and perhaps visited, the golf courses in Scotland and Ireland, for example, called “links” courses, which are far different from what we’ve known here.
A links is the oldest style golf course, first developed where the game was invented, in Scotland.
For the most part, they are built on a sandy coastline, which are not designed and constructed, but natural and more wide open.
The wind plays a huge factor on these courses.
Lots of wind. Often over 30mph. The fairways are uneven.
There are no trees, but heavy rough and thick grass all along the fairway.
There are courses called parkland and heathland, which are more inland and have firmer playing surfaces.
But all of them, whether they’re by the coastline or not, are marked by undulating fairways, steep bunkers, often right down the middle, and greens that could either be 100 feet long, or the size of a postage stamp.
Golfers here have heard about the term “gorse” in describing the topography of courses over there, but gorse is somewhat like a set of green bushes along the side.
Mostly it’s just plain long grass, not green, and every caddy can find your ball if you hit it there, which you will.
We did, in playing some of the courses in Ireland.
The bunkers are aplenty. You will find them as well.
They are smaller. And they appear everywhere.
They are called “pot bunkers”, which are circular in shape, deeper, and nasty.
We often found the bunkers, sometimes having to hit out behind, not forward, to get the ball out and continue to march on.
The greens are always a fun challenge.
A downhill putt may, in fact, be uphill.
And the opposite will be true as well.
Did I mention the weather?
They told us we would experience all four seasons in a single day. And at times we did.
The only element missing was snow.
The game is played differently there.
Playing requires more of a controlled style.
Hitting low and bouncing shots to skip onto the greens may be preferred to the high flights where the wind can take over.
It can rain in an instant. And you better have the gear to withstand it.
Golfing in a place like Ireland is close to 180 degrees different than playing here.
The scenery, weather conditions, course conditions, really just about everything is in sharp contrast to what we are accustomed to.
It is an experience to behold.
But if you go back to the top, and read the first ten items, they will always remain the same.
That will never change about the game of golf.