Walking

As I get ready to pony up a few dollars for my annual golf membership at Romeo Golf Club, I’ve really had to evaluate what I get out of it. For those who don’t know, during the golf season (April-October) I get up at the crack of dawn and play 9 holes of golf before work. On my days off I tend to stretch that to 18 holes, but for the most part I play 9 holes and still make it home in time for breakfast before work.

Sure, I get excersize out of the deal. Sure, I feel better having played 9 holes than I do not playing 9 holes before my day at the office. Sure, I could get better excersize or raise my heart beat a little more. Sure, I could find a cheaper thing to do with my mornings. Sure, I could find something that wasn’t so controversial to do.

But I like it. It’s more than just golf you know. It’s the time to myself. When you play the same course over and over again you find that you don’t really think about the course too much. I know the holes, I know the terrain, I know the breaks, I know the heighth of trees and the type of shot I have to hit. So it becomes a bit of a self-reflective time. There is something very powerful and spiritual to my time alone on the links. I know that each time I play I will score within a certain range and I will face certain problem areas. But I often get so caught up with my golf in the shear magnitude of the life-illustration. Golf looks simple, but it isn’t. We try to do things the easiest and best way, but we often mess up. We know that discipline will get us better results, but we fail to do what it takes. We know that life isn’t about having the best equipment. It never ends.

Along those same lines, I ran into this post about walking on Marko’s blog.