I recently did a few sessions called "Management lessons from golf" for the management team of one of my ex-companies. I remember telling the participants that in my experience golf is the best teacher of humility ever invented by humans. Period.
The demands of precision, and the need for mental strength make golf a tough sport, and therefore tough to master, and play consistently. Ups and downs in performance are normal, and even unavoidable for ordinary mortals. Periods of good play can be followed by awful play, and then for no apparent reason the game picks up again. A change in technique can sometimes result in a spectacular improvement, but the improved performance disappears shortly thereafter.
This sport is not very good for one's ego. The moment you feel on top of the world during a purple patch, golf has this uncanny knack of getting you in the chin with a Mike Tyson uppercut.
The reason I was reminded of this today was that for the last two months I played some of the best golf of my life. During most rounds I couldn't do much wrong. Somewhere at the back of my mind I knew that Mike Tyson was lurking around the corner, but I just pushed that thought away. Midway through my previous round big Mike finally landed the uppercut, and he followed it up today with a pretty good left hook.
This coming weekend I will start the process of picking myself off the floor, figure out what I need to do differently, and try again to see if my game comes back. If not, there is always the round after that. Mike might be busy taking care of another golfer with a bloated head, and perhaps I will be able to sneak in a good round behind his back...
The demands of precision, and the need for mental strength make golf a tough sport, and therefore tough to master, and play consistently. Ups and downs in performance are normal, and even unavoidable for ordinary mortals. Periods of good play can be followed by awful play, and then for no apparent reason the game picks up again. A change in technique can sometimes result in a spectacular improvement, but the improved performance disappears shortly thereafter.
This sport is not very good for one's ego. The moment you feel on top of the world during a purple patch, golf has this uncanny knack of getting you in the chin with a Mike Tyson uppercut.
The reason I was reminded of this today was that for the last two months I played some of the best golf of my life. During most rounds I couldn't do much wrong. Somewhere at the back of my mind I knew that Mike Tyson was lurking around the corner, but I just pushed that thought away. Midway through my previous round big Mike finally landed the uppercut, and he followed it up today with a pretty good left hook.
This coming weekend I will start the process of picking myself off the floor, figure out what I need to do differently, and try again to see if my game comes back. If not, there is always the round after that. Mike might be busy taking care of another golfer with a bloated head, and perhaps I will be able to sneak in a good round behind his back...
My good friend Amit Bhattacharya sent me this note: "Today i shot a 75 (hole 12 was a par 4, so par was 70) in qualifying for quadrangular cup, so it looks like while you were getting your head bashed in by mike, i quickly "snuck" my round in. :)"
ReplyDeleteYou ain't kidding my friend. After an embarrassing score of 106, 2 days back, I shot an 89 today, which is golden by my standards. Let's see what happens next round.
ReplyDeleteAnshu
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell mike was after my life until sometime back ,hope he is busy with you or someone else for some days so i may have few good once to motivate myself
ReplyDelete