I Refuse to Quit

In the midst of the war that is an 18-hole round of competitive golf it is not hard to think about turning and running when things aren’t going well. Think about all the announcers on television: most were very good or great players. All of them quit voluntarily (although Nobilo I think could not overcome an injury problem). Since they were good, then quit, you would have to figure that they began to play consistently worse than they were used to, and after a while just couldn’t handle it anymore. It is hard to get your head around your deteriorating skills, and obviously they all chose to make their living otherwise (since you don’t get paid very well for mediocre golf).
 
Why do I bring this up? Well, I am right there in the midst of what can no longer be called a “slump”, when a more honest assessment would be that I am just not as good a player as I used to be. If it were one thing holding me back I might have a different view, but as each round comes and goes I simply find more creative ways to shoot a mediocre to poor score. Today, at the qualifying round for the Maryland State Open (which, incidentally, I have won 3 times), I missed 5 putts inside of 4 feet and shot 79 on a tough course, on a day where I wouldn’t usually think about shooting over 73. I bogied the last 5 holes, missing putts, hitting crappy shots, and getting bad breaks (two decent shots rolling up against 3 inch long collars).
 
Anyway, here’s the point. I’m not going to quit. It is tortuous for me to play poorly, but I love to compete and feel like I can play well again if I apply myself. Another reason I will not quit is that I owe it to my students to share in their suffering. There is nothing that keeps you more humble than keeping score. I have never had full respect for teachers that never play, or for players who quit and then turn around and criticize other players from the booth, because they have exempted themselves from the battle. They can all talk nicely about the swing, about pressure, about what players should be doing in order to improve, but I take it all with a grain of salt because the fact is that it is easy to talk about golf, but so freaking hard to play it. Please note that I said “full respect”, not “no respect”, because I do respect teachers who are knowledgeable and who work hard to make their students successful. But I have always thought that teachers should keep playing, even when the results aren’t there. I know that they all have excuses and rationalizations, but it just boils down to signing up and dragging yourself to the first tee. In order to play better you have to prepare. And what is more important to a student than learning how to best prepare for the all-out struggle of a round of golf. I feel strongly that one of the main things that makes me the teacher that I am and that separates me from other instructors is that I still practice and prepare for real events, and I learn from every competitive experience.

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