By Michael Hebron^*

What is the Spirit of the Game?

I sent my enclosed thoughts on the spirit of the game and frustration to several PGA professionals and Susan Meyers sent me her thoughts. Susie Meyers PGA is a former LPGA Tour Player, University of Arizona All American, Top 50 Teacher List (Golf for Women)

When did the perception of golf start interfering with the Spirit of golf?

Some in the golf industry are proposing changes for the game of golf in order to attract more golfers. Their ideas include bigger balls, a bigger hole and even 12 hole scorecards. As we all are interested in growing the game we should take these suggestions into consideration but we should also consider how the game is being portrayed today.

From my experiences, golf comes from the inside of one's being and not from the newest technological improvement. Any strive for perfection can only lead to frustration and dissatisfaction. What is the purpose of having to have the perfect ball or the perfect club or the most difficult golf course or even the perfect swing? What message is the industry sending out? Golf is a beautiful game that can get lost amongst the commercialism of the business of golf.

When I played golf as a young girl every shot was a surprise! It was a wonder to find out where the ball was going and how good would it be? I still have some friends I played with as a youngster and can hear my Dad saying to me every time I went out to play, Go out and have fun!

I have a special memory of the first time I shot even par in a high school 9 hole match and how the principal sent me a special congratulatory note that day. The greens had been punched and some were even temporary greens but that didn’t seem to matter, it was still my first 36!

Everything about the game has enhanced my life. Golf has inspired me and has been the source of many special relationships. It has shaped my philosophy and way of thinking about life. Golf is a beautiful game. It’s not difficult to see where my love for the game began to grow. My memories come from spending time with my family playing golf. I would come home from college or the mini tours and play golf with my dad, then at dinner we would have lively conversations about our day together. We were able to bond and share experiences together.

My mom who loves the game still decorates her golf cart on every holiday and special occasion and plays for the joy of seeing the ball fly, the joy of getting to spend 4 hours with her friends and the joy of something to look forward to; her weekly game!

As I was learning to love this game, golf was not seen as too hard, or too long to play, or too expensive or too frustrating. I didn’t grow up on the newest and most difficult course in the area. I relished my time on the course and hated to see it end. I had people in my life that helped my perspective toward the game that I will remember forever.

I had mentors who shared how “life is golf but golf is not life”. They made the game a daily self challenge without frustration. I loved watching the champions, Nancy Lopez, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Weiskopf. They inspired me but I never tried to copy them!

The game of golf is pure, ageless and intoxicating. The business of golf may give a very different perspective. The notion of the perfect ball, or club, or grass, or swing is commercialization, making people believe they need this or that to be happy. The desire for these perfections changes the eyes we see at the game with. It brings into play a need, a want, an unrealistic goal, a search for things outside of oneself instead of of realizing that we have what we need right inside our self.

Unfortunately much of today’s instruction is based on correcting mistakes and making the “correct” swing, causing frustration. When I was a young player if I had been loaded down with all the technological information that is available today, I would have left my clubs in the garage!! I was fortunate to grow up without a video camera and never saw my swing until after I had played on Tour! Perfection is unattainable and can lead to much frustration. (There is research that shows video replay slows down learning.)

So whose idea was it anyway to make the hardest course in the county? Whose idea was it to say there is a perfect swing and if you come to me I will tell you where your swing goes wrong and how to fix it? Whose idea was it to make the courses so difficult it takes 5 ½ hours to play? Whose idea was it to make the golf course so perfect that the cost of the building and maintenance of it had to be passed along to the golfer, making the game so expensive?

It was the “spirit of the game” that made some of us who played want to be a part of it. We wanted to be in the golf business, to be able share and promote what a great game this is. We wanted to share how inspiring and fulfilling spending a day on the links can be. We wanted to help people realize that anyone can play this game, the old, the young, the girls, the boys, the able and disabled. Everyone can play and experience lasting relationships, the joy of sending the ball flying or sinking a putt, the creativeness of self discovery of inventing your own stroke, not someone else’s.

Why would some now say the hole is too small, the ball too small, the game is too hard or it takes too long to play? It isn’t any of these things; it is a journey into happiness if only we could change the perception of the game!

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Credits

Originally posted by MichaelHebron on 16 Sep 2011.
All contributors: MarleneStone, MichaelHebron,

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