Thursday, January 14, 2010

Yin/Yang

Compared to creating a golf-related website, golfing is simple. The game is impossible to master, but at least it's intuitive: hit the ball towards the hole. Creating a website, however (at least as I attempted this task tonight for nearly three and a half hours) is nowhere near intuitive and, in fact, may prove far more difficult for me to do than to become a scratch golfer.

Towards this latter end, I played a nine-hole golf course I've never played before, Penmar. I asked the starter if a single could go out, and he said, "Yeah, you're on the tee." Racing to the first tee without having putted, stretched, warmed up, affixed the various braces that I wear or mentally prepared myself to find the zen inherent in the game did not give me much confidence as I addressed the ball. I hit the drive a bit left, but hard and far, and, well, perhaps I should race and not be ready more often.

I parred the first, birdied the second, parred the third and nearly drove the green, 270 yards from the tee, on the fourth. I was 10 feet off the green, and I said to myself, I can't believe this, but I'm about to start par, birdie, par, birdie, at worst, since I could possibly make this eagle chip. The lesson for the day, of course, is: One shot at a time, without considering significance, consequence or score. I left the 7-iron chip 15 feet short, blew the angry putt four feet past, then missed the comebacker. From eagle to bogey in three easy steps. I parred the next, however, and was even par through 5.

Then I came down to Earth a bit, bogeying the last four. But here's how I'm choosing to look at things: Over the course of the last 18 holes I've played, including the Rancho 3-Par and Penmar, I'm only 5 over. Not bad at all for a guy who had trouble breaking 100 throughout 2009.

If, however, the creation of the website, Golf As Therapy, continues to drain me as tonight's effort has, I may have to seek professional assistance.

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