Rules of the game

During the broadcast of last week's PGA tournament, I noticed a series of ads for a financial services firm that featured children learning to play golf. The only people in each ad were a young girl or boy with a set of golf clubs and a "grandfatherly" type gentleman watching nearby. One that was particularly memorable had a girl looking forlornly at her ball which had missed the fairway and landed in a densely wooded area. She questions outloud whether anyone would know if she moved the ball to a better location but decides she will follow the rules and "play it where it lies." The man then adds the tagline theme of the series - that the rules of golf are also good rules to follow for life.

Play it where it lies. No matter how difficult or strange or unfair, the rules of golf are based on the premise that you hit the ball from whereever it comes to a rest. If the lie really is unplayable - like in the lake or out of bounds - you end up with penalty strokes in addition to the extra strokes it takes to actually get the ball in the cup. Just like life. Make a mistake and you have to deal with consequences, maybe even penalties. Accidents, disasters, illness are the stuff of life that happen unpredictably and unfairly. And so we "play the hand we're dealt."

Whatever happened to get you to this spot, good golfers simply go about the business of deciding how best to take the next shot. No whining. No complaining. Just figure out which club you'll use and what angle to approach the ball and try your best to get the ball closer to the hole or at least to a place where you can take a better shot.

I used to play in annual charity golf tournament which offered players the opportunity to purchase a mulligan at registration. For this day, we could break the rules with one 'do-over" allowed in the round. Of course, this was one more way to add to the amount raised that day for the sponsoring charity, but could you imagine the result if charities could sell mulligans for a day at work or school or with a spouse or child?

In the PGA tournament, Tiger Woods hit a drive down the fairway which came to rest in a divet. Of course, this was unlucky and unfair, making the shot much more difficult than if it been a couple inches to either side of the patch without grass. Tiger being Tiger, his shot soared perfectly toward the hole.

Even if you are not a golfer, you have to admire Tiger Wood's ability to make unusual and difficult shots. More than simply athletic prowess or skills aquired from years of practice, Tiger's ability to amaze is also attributed to his creativity or imagination.

Play it where it lies may be the rule but the life lesson is making the best of a bad situation, making lemonade when life gives you lemonade. Quilters would recognize it as what you do with the material left over from other projects. The result can look like an assortment of scraps sewn together or, with imagination and creativity, something beautiful, a work of art.

The rules of golf are all based on the need to keep score. After all, if one doesn't keep score and play according to the rules, how will anyone else who plays golf be able to evaluate your game - and especially to compare their game to yours? Folks seem baffled when I tell them I don't keep score when I play. How do I know how I'm doing, they wonder? I don't have to keep score to know how I'm doing. Some drives are long and straight, some dribble off the tee; some putts head right for the hole, some don't go anywhere near the flag. I still play it as it lies, I just can't tell you at the end of a hole exactly how many shots it took me to get there. I can tell you if I had at least one good shot at that hole - which means simply that after my club struck the ball, I felt some sense of satisfaction. Two "good" shots in a row, and I'm feeling really happy.

As a lesson for life, my approach to golf has more to do with placing a higher value on being than doing - being outdoors, being with friends, being phsyically active - enjoying what I'm doing rather than worrying about how I'm doing. Playing the ball as it lies is just that for me - playing.