It appears that the game of golf is on a steady decline. Many of the courses built around housing projects in the last 20 years are now abandoned, leaving homeowners to worry about home values. The sport itself does not seem to have the same impact on young people of today, which I find sad. Yes, I grew up in a different era but the game of golf taught me more than just the sport itself.

First of all, I was lucky, my dad loved to play and my mom loved the sport too, so we were a golfing family. I also benefited from the fact that the game came pretty easy to me and that my dad let me tag along and learn the game at a young age. The cost of the game was not crazy at that time either and what type of equipment you used was not as important as it is today. The clubs I learned to play with were my mom’s, which was true with most of my friends that I got to play with back then, they all used their mom’s clubs.

Another part of the exposure came from caddying, we had a club that was not too far from us called Meadowbrook, it was private and they used caddies exclusively back then. My friend got me involved and I was able to make a little money and we also got to play one day per week. So I could play a couple of days at the public course with the money and play the private club one day a week.

One of the other benefits of my upbringing was that my mom taught me to enjoy the process. Whenever I came home from golf she never asked me what I shot, she just asked if I had fun. There was never a point to make the score the dominant subject, it was enjoying the game that was important. As a result of that, I became more comfortable with the game and seemed to enjoy the ‘walk in the park’ atmosphere it created. It was really an enjoyment to go out and walk the course for four hours while challenging your skills, your attitude and your own competitive nature. But this is not a piece about my golfing abilities, it is about how an 18 hole round of golf is so much like life.

When you show up to the course you check in and head to the first tee, the beginning. There a starter, a person who is there to greet you, guides you and gets you going headed in the right direction. (Kind of like a parent) Some guys that go out to play have the line, which they think is funny, “Where is the first tee and what is the course record?”. It is a joke, but it does hold dear to the way we are as youngsters. Our parents have big dreams for us when we are born, many see so much in that young toddler or the baby who can barely open their eyes. I have not met a parent that hopes their newborn grows up to be a failure, it is the life that knocks us off the path of our parents’ dreams.

Most golf courses start with some easier holes, but even though they may be easier, there are still the traps and hazards along the way. Much like life, getting off to a good start can help your game of golf. There also can be many struggles early on that get the best of us, if we don’t stay on track and we lose our way, our round can crash early. On the golf course, there are rangers, people whose sole job is to make sure that play is moving along, kind of like teachers in our lives. Some people pay no attention to the rangers (Teachers) and they seem to struggle more than others. That type of behavior slows the entire course down and our lives. It is also true that a fast start on the golf course or in life does not guarantee success at the end. Which is good news because we can all rally to finish strong.

Yes, there are a lot of similarities between life and golf. I remember on the last day of my dad’s life, I sat with him all day on that Sunday in January of 2012. I knew that he was approaching the final green and I suspect that he did too. He wanted chocolate ice cream that morning and I drove all over Panama City looking for a store open at that time on a Sunday morning that had it. Fortunately, I found it and my dad enjoyed a bowl or two. We talked about life and we talked about golf, those two things seemed welded together in our life. He had an old golf ball that was sitting on his tray, not sure where it came from, but he gave it to me that day, I should say he stuck it in my pocket. It still sits in my office. My wife and I had to get back home, three hours away, so we said our goodbyes and begin to leave. As we got to the door of the ICU, something compelled me to tell my wife to go ahead and I went back to my dad’s bedside. We stood there holding hands all alone, and he told me that he loved me, I gave him a hug and a kiss and told him that I loved him too. I felt that huge hand, still so strong, grasp mine and then they separated, and I walked out the door.

We drove home that evening listening to football games, it was January and the playoffs were winding down. I really do not think that I heard any of the game, my mind was far off on some golf course playing another round with my dad. I cannot tell you if there was a conversation in the car and I do not know if we stopped on the way home. What I do know is that after we got home and unpacked the car, I was in another room and I heard my phone ring and my wife answered it and I heard the word “when?” I then heard, “I’ll tell him”. I knew then that my dad had made the final putt, put the flag back into the cup and walked off the 18th green.

Golf taught me so much, how it is so much like the struggles of life. That if you are on your game and you can avoid the traps and hazards it can be a great day. Yet even if your game is off and you’re not playing your best, the surrounding nature is still beautiful and the challenge it brings can prepare you for the next day when you get another chance to challenge yourself again. Golf is slow, it is methodical and it is played one hole, one shot at a time. Maybe we need more golf in our life because life too is lived at its best, one day at a time…to be treasured and enjoyed.