By Hannah Berman
young guns
Is or isn’t Golf a Good Walk Spoiled? So I was asked to write an essay for a scholarship for which I am applying. After writing it, I thought it would make a good column for this month’s issue. When you're done reading it, let us know your thoughts about the topic at #notjust golf! When Mark Twain wrote, “golf is a good walk spoiled,” he was either having a very bad day on the course or wasn’t actually a golfer. What I have learned through this great game is that even when golf is at its
This is me with LPGA star and my idol Morgan Pressel at the LPGA event in Ocala (we share a birthday, but ten years apart...when I was 12 she let me WALk inside the ropes with her for four holes). On the right is my friend Morgan Baxendale. We just had a great walk along side Morgan Pressel at the tournament!
most difficult (or perhaps because it is its most difficult), golf is always a good (and even great) walk. What makes golf always such a great walk is that even the most challenging days, holes or shots are fun and interesting. I have had my share of bad days, and, sure, I have hung my head a few times for a moment or two, but I always look forward to the next one. I think that’s what makes golf a great walk – there is always that next one. Sometimes it’s the challenge. Sometimes it’s the people with whom I’m playing.
Sometimes, when I’m just practicing or playing by myself, it’s just the joy of being outside with nothing except for me and the course (and the birds, turtles and squirrels). While I understand the humor in what Mr. Twain means and I can see how a person might even sometimes agree, when I am on a golf course it helps make all the pressures and anxieties of my every-day life go away. Golf is my refuge and the course is my happy place. One of the things that makes golf
Reflex golf push cart from Sun Mountain
great is the opportunity for me to give back to my community. In a way, it’s another form of walking – by being involved with charities and learning about them and by participating in events like Jacksonville Family Promises’ Cardboard City, an event where people pretend to be homeless for a night, I get to walk in other people’s shoes. I’m sure Mr. Twain wasn’t thinking about this aspect of golf because to me this is another way golf is anything but a good walk spoiled. Because of golf I have made some of my closest friends. I have traveled to some really cool places. I’ve gotten to spend time with my family that I never would have spent otherwise. I’ve gotten involved in my community and my school. Golf taught me so much about who I am, how far I can push myself and about my character (and sometimes about other people’s). Golf is a game that teaches me something every time I pick up a club. It’s even cool to know that in playing golf, I am part of a history and a heritage. I’ve walked the same courses, hit the same shots and played the same tournaments as some of the greatest people in history. I’m walking in their shoes. Golf isn’t just a game. It’s a culture. While I love to compete and I always play to win, golf means so much more to me than just a game. So even on my worst days, golf is never a good walk spoiled. Golf is simply, and always, just a good walk.
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Southern Golf Central • Volume 16, Issue 2