Golf isn't for everyone ... but it's worth the effort

Some people are fortunate enough to play golf well. That's great, but I think it's better to play golf right.

By that I mean, getting the most you can out of the game. Some people are naturally gifted and can play golf well ... shoot a low score. Others work hard at it and also achieve a certain level of skill. But if you play it "right," golf will give you much greater rewards than a low score.

Golf is not for everyone, I've come to understand. It forces us to slow down, has considerable down time between swings and can sometimes seem cruel, like the nicely struck recovery shot that catches the smallest branch of a tree.

"A good walk spoiled," is how Mark Twain referred to golf.

Twain wrote some great stories, and in a sort of Zelig-like link, he and I both had bylined stories from what was once the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi. But I'll bet he didn't have the patience for golf. If he had, he might have thought differently.

Golf is a game that values calm over chaos, serenity over sound and peace if not always prosperity. Done right, it can teach patience. You cannot swing a stick at a little round ball that doesn't move, that almost never does the same thing twice when struck, and invariably doesn't do what you want it to do, without either pulling out your hair or at least wanting to.

If you can find the humor in it, the understanding that it's the journey and not the destination that matters, you are that much closer to the Zen of golf. And, unlike many other athletic endeavors, it's a game you can enjoy into your old age.

In my youth, I was much less patient with bad shots, and my game in general. As I've gotten older, and played less often, I have come to appreciate the game more, to focus on the things I'm doing right and worry less about what I'm doing wrong.

I'm also not afraid to tinker more with my game. If something isn't working, try a different approach. What's the worst that could happen? A higher score? A lost ball? And that's bad because ... ?

It's not. There's no mantra. I don't chant between shots.

Take a breath. So you've hit that dreaded duck-hook into the trees, and now you've got a tricky shot back into civilization. What's the problem?

No one is expecting you to pull off that miracle recovery, but if you do ... what a sensation. Anyone can play this game from the middle of the fairway. It's the clever fellow who can find his way home without a map.