Reflections on golf – and God

Today I am watching my grandson Tarun at the golf driving range, practicing the shots that his grandfather Rajan has taught him. Tarun is still a rookie at golf, but he hasn’t dropped out after the first few sessions – which is creditable, given the fact that he is just an eight-and-a-half year old boy.
Rajan faithfully takes him to the golf course every Sunday after church. He is keen that at least one person in the family should carry on the golfing tradition after them. He spends a lot of time showing Tarun the correct stance, the curious hip-wiggling, leg-shufflling movements that are necessary to keep the body in position when the club makes contact with the ball, so that what results is a smooth, flexible swing – and the ball is on the flight path to its destination – one of the holes on the five mounds set up in the golfing range.

Is it easy? Not a chance. Only pro golfers make those fluid strokes and perfect shots look deceptively easy. It takes patience, persistence, perseverance and focus to get you to your goal.

Patience
Golf can be the most frustrating of games. The ball teases you by going somewhere close to the hole and then veers off unexpectedly. At the driving range, scores of aspiring golfers hit hundreds of balls each day, hoping to improve their technique and get on target. It’s raining golf balls on the range, and the man in a ball-sweeper machine keeps making rounds to collect them all, often while the golfers are still hitting balls! He collects a bunch of balls, only to have another hundred or so whizzing into the range, only to be collected all over again!

At the range, you can gauge your distance by the boards marking 50 yards, 150, 175, 200 yards, and there are six mounds, some with flags on them, at which the players aim their balls. Often a single player can hit up to 200 balls – The club provides them in baskets of 25 or 50 each. It takes patience to finish hitting all the balls you take, when you don’t see yourself making noticeable progress; when you’re tired and hungry; when your interest wanes.

Persistence
Persistence takes you to the next level – just when you want to give up. However much encouragement his grand-dad gives him, Tarun has to put in the extra effort and persistence on his own, to improve his strike rate.

Perseverance
Perseverance means staying the course -doing what it takes to reach the goal, despite obstacles or setbacks. Coming to practice Sunday after Sunday, when other kids are goofing off or playing computer games, requires determination and perseverance. Rajan’s own commitment to seeing his grandson succeed, brings him to the driving range with Tarun, to coach and encourage him, to mentor him by modelling his own shots, and to get Tarun to keep trying, keep focusing and getting better all the time. Tarun on his part has to make the mental decision not to quit, no matter what it takes.

Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must–but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victors cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tints of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
Its when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
- Anonymous

Rajan has been talking of putting Tarun through a golf coaching course, where he has to commit to learning and practicing golf under a trained coach for a few hours every Saturday and Sunday for at least one year. That’s a long time in the life of an eight-and-a-half-year-old! If Tarun has the grit and determination to stick it out, he has a chance of graduating from the driving range and actually playing golf on the golf course,under the watchful eyes of the coach. He will also get a chance to play with Callaway golf clubs – one of the top brands in golf equipment! He will be well on the road to becoming a real golfer!

Focus
Golf needs complete focus and concentration – the slightest lapse of attention can make the best shot go awry. Rajan keeps telling Tarun to intensely concentrate and keep his “eye on the ball”, all through the downswing movement of the arms, and even after hitting the ball. Once this focus on the ball becomes automatic, he will be on the way to becoming a better golfer.

Pressing on to perfection
Reflecting on golf made me realise that the qualities that make a good golfer are the same that make a person reach new heights in any pursuit, whether it is in music, dance, drama, gymnastics, swimming, art or any sport, academics, business or just about any walk of life.

These are the very same qualities that bring us closer to the perfection that is God, who is the source of all perfection.If we focus and concentrate on God, we draw closer to Him and we hear His voice. We can do this through prayer and meditation, by making God a part of our every thought and action, by committing all that we are and all that we do to Him alone.

As the Apostle Paul says, we all need to press on to the perfection of everlasting life, the perfection that Christ gave His life on earth for all of mankind to experience, by giving Himself as an atonement for our sins.We need to forge ahead towards the goal that He has promised.

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

Through prayer and patience in the midst of life’s inevitable setbacks, betrayals, letdowns and difficulties, through persistence and perseverance, in Him we have the tenacity to endure, to press on the upward way, gaining new heights in the knowledge and love of God…. until one day we walk with Him in Paradise.

God has placed within each of us a deep desire to be more like him everyday. He gives us the strength to attain all we can ever be – in Him.

For as we read in Acts 17:28 “in Him we live and move and have our being”.

- Trixie Asirvatham