How the Ball Bounces with Bekka: Golf – Where Athletes Go to Retire
I’ve decided golf is where athletes go to have their confidence destroyed.
Think about it.
You spend your entire life playing sports. You learn how to run, jump, throw, catch, hit, and generally make your body do what your brain tells it to do.
You develop hand-eye coordination. Balance. Timing. Competitive instincts.
You hone your body to be an elite-level athlete. And when all that comes to its inevitable end, somebody hands you a golf club.
Suddenly, you’re standing over a ball that isn’t even moving, wondering how on earth you’re supposed to hit it.
IT’S NOT MOVING.
I played softball for years. I’ve hit balls coming toward me. I’ve fielded ground balls taking unpredictable bounces. I’ve played basketball against people actively trying to keep me from doing what I wanted to do.
But put a stationary golf ball in front of me? Apparently, that’s where we draw the line.
And here’s what really gets me.
Golf looks so peaceful. Beautiful green grass. Fresh air. Birds chirping. People driving around in little carts. It’s practically a nature retreat.
And then… you hit your third shot into the woods and start questioning every decision you’ve made since breakfast. Or maybe your entire existence.
I’ve heard people say golf is a relaxing sport.
Those people and I are clearly playing different games.
Because I am a competitive person. I don’t know how to participate in something without wanting to crush it. And golf does not reward that personality trait.
Golf will let you hit one absolutely beautiful shot. One shot that makes you stand there thinking, “Well, would you look at me!”
And then immediately remind you that you have no idea how you did it as you’re on your way to your local sporting goods retailer to purchase new tiny stationary balls to replace the pile you just lost in the woods and/or dropped in the nearest water hazard.
You spend the next seventeen holes trying to recreate something that apparently happened by accident.
I’ve decided that’s how golf keeps people coming back. It gives you just enough hope to make you believe you’ve figured it out. Then it takes that hope, puts it in a sand trap, and hands you a wedge.
And can we talk about the advice?
Keep your head down.
Don’t swing too hard.
Follow through.
Relax your grip.
Rotate your hips.
Don’t think about it so much.
I’m sorry. DON’T THINK ABOUT IT?
You just gave me six things to think about! Don’t you know that everything I’ve done my whole life revolves around the exact premise of THINKING ABOUT IT???
In basketball, if I missed a shot, I generally understood why. Maybe my feet weren’t set. Maybe I rushed it. Maybe somebody was guarding me.
In golf, I can make what feels like the exact same swing twice and send one ball down the fairway and the next one toward another ZIP code.
And everybody just nods like this is normal.
But here’s the embarrassing part.
I love it.
Not because I’m good at it. Let’s not get carried away.
I love it because, for all the frustration, golf gives me something I don’t get very often anymore. The chance to be a beginner. The chance to learn something without already knowing how to do it. The chance to laugh at myself when things go spectacularly wrong.
And occasionally, the chance to hit one really good shot and act like I’ve been doing this my entire life.
Shortly after I started golfing with Speedy, we were out at Longhills and ran into my college basketball coach, Coach Marvel. I knew he was an avid golfer (and competitor), so I wasn’t surprised to see him. He, however, was a little surprised to see me.
Coach Marvel gave me my favorite piece of golfing advice I’ve ever received, and he did it with a smirk and a little laugh that only one of his former athletes could truly appreciate.
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As we were headed out to the course and Coach was headed into the clubhouse, he put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Bek, it’s nothing like shooting free throws, but you’ll figure it out.”
When we got in the cart, Speedy looked at me with complete confusion and asked if I understood what that meant.
I smiled.
Absolutely.
See, when you’re shooting free throws, you can shoot a million of them. Hone your mechanics. Scrutinize every aspect of your shot. Tighten your mental game. You can practically turn it into a science.
Golf? Golf has other plans.
The wind. The cut of the grass. A random forest creature with absolutely no respect for your athletic résumé.
And sometimes you do everything right and the ball still goes somewhere you never intended.
Much like life, you learn to adjust on the fly and play it wherever it lies.
That whole exchange told me pretty much everything I needed to know about this new sport.
So maybe golf really is where athletes go to retire.
Not because we’re done competing.
But because apparently we need a sport that reminds us we’re not nearly as impressive as we remember being.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have approximately 47 things to fix about my swing.
And a golf ball somewhere in the woods that I paid good money to lose.
And that’s how the ball really bounces.
Read more from How the Ball Bounces with Bekka in the archives at www.mysaline.com/bounces.
About the author: Bekka Wilkerson is a lifelong lover of all things sports. Raised in a super athletic household it was no surprise when she too began to love sports at a young age. It seems like from the time she could walk she had a softball bat in her hands, but her true athletic passion came from all things Basketball. That love served her well as a Bryant High School Lady Hornet and ultimately earned her a full scholarship to play at the University of Central Arkansas – among many other adventures.
These days Bekka can be found running around Saline County with her husband, Speedy, or chasing one of her grandsons. She is also the Executive Director of The EMpact One Foundation, a Saline County Nonprofit Organization that helps young people stay connected to extracurricular activities through tuition assistance and equipment provisions.
Reach out to Bekka with questions and/or ideas about things you want to see in this column at [email protected] and learn more about The EMpact One Foundation at www.empactone.org.
