It feels a little like the movie, “Groundhog Day,” when you play in a golf tournament once a year. In that film, the protagonist relives one day over and over and over until he gets life right. Unfortunately, I’d need a lot of Groundhog Days to get my golfing skills up to par. Extending the analogy, one could never get golf “right” playing once a year in a fundraiser. Golf is an exacting master to its enslaved.
No matter how I try to mask my conversation with our foursome in order to get the attention off my golfing unskills, it always feels like a thinly-veiled way of changing the subject. While golfers are known for cutting big deals by the 9th green, they also belong to some “Cult of the White Ball.”
In other words, they like to talk golf. They enjoy gabbing about hooks and slices and false fronts and tease each other about being in the sand-removing business. Intrinsicly, when I veer the topic off golf, they know I’m trying divert the subject of how I’m crushing any hopes that they’ll win the coveted lowest-team score for the tournament.
Within this guilt-ridden affair, I try to take away a golf lesson. My, oh my, it’s a literal takeaway. I still have the ball I started with.
Maybe I'll land a role in a sequel to Groundhog Day on a golf course.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Within each day, with our without groundhogs, there is something that is not lost.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:8 (NIV)