What makes a round of golf feel like a terrific round of golf? Sometimes it takes nothing more than just a beautiful day on the course with friends. It might be a single perfect shot or one well played hole. And sometimes, just sometimes, without any particular defining moment in an entire round of golf, you look back over eighteen holes and realize you played your best. No blow up holes, no disastrous mental errors, not even a double - for the average amateur golf, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Say what you want about “one swing at a time,” there isn’t an avid golfer alive who steps to the first tee without a sense of anticipation. But the line between anticipation and expectation is decidedly slim, as narrow as a single blade of grass. Whether you are a 38 handicapper, an 18 or an 8, or even scratch, part of the beauty and mystique of the game of golf is that you never know what lies ahead. Each time we step out on the course, we can only wonder if it will all come together - or whether it won’t. That is at the heart of the reason we continue to play, and precisely why we never give up hope of shooting the perfect round.
A true golfer is hooked from the very first par. The sight of the ball curving up from tee to sky exactly as envisioned, a great kick in the fairway, a hop to the green… the ball disappearing into the hole, the satisfying rattle as it settles into the cup – it is captivating. When you first string a few good shots together, you realize the game is yours for the taking.
You felt it when you made your first birdie, that initial moment when you bested par. You caught a glimpse of perfection but, like the tip of an iceberg, there was more below the surface. A golfer wants to be longer – straighter – better. We go round after round in search of our perfect game.
As a new golfer, I could not comprehend the declaration “I hit it well, but I couldn’t score.” I was baffled when a player would shoot a fabulous number and yet still disparage his game. Years of golf have dissected the truth of these statements, the reality of which is relative to our own personal game and level of play.
Golfers all have personal benchmarks by which they measure their games, as diverse as our individual swings. Breaking 100 may be the ultimate goal for one, and as satisfying as a round in the 70’s for another. It’s bogie golf for some and sub-par for others. It may be finally making the green on that diabolical par three (with your driver!) or hitting a par five in two (with an iron!).
Our goals and our games may be widely divergent, but that makes our accomplishments on the course no less gratifying. For an amateur golfer, our perfect golf game may not be the one when we shoot the lowest number. It may not be the one where we hit the ball the furthest or when we hit the straightest putts. Our perfect round is waiting for us, on a golf course somewhere. We need only recognize it and appreciate it when it happens.
