Golf? The Impact of the Game on My Life

Growing up my parents never really forced me to like anything, my mom was a florist and my dad became a “fancy food” chef. Both those passions weren’t anything you could really teach to a kid. What people don’t usually realize is that my parents were usually super busy and as an only child they felt really bad for me so they sent me into various summer camps during my elementary school days ranging from chess camp to outdoor camp to finally the multi sport program at Chelsea Piers. Now the story of why I picked up the game of golf is one I tell a lot but never in detail and never really to the extent where I can actually convey why the sport had such a significant impact on my outlook on life. Thinking back, Chelsea Piers was a good experience. There I could try out almost every sport. Everything was fun but I didn’t feel like I could actually fully pick up any of the activities. I felt too short for basketball and too uncoordinated for gymnastics. I found soccer to be really fun, but when I learned the game of golf it was a whole other level.

See for most people it’s hard to imagine the game for how it is until they actually hit a golf ball. I can only describe my first impression of it like this: a 10 year old me is looking at a field of 300 yards with balls flying all over the place. Those balls were reaching the height of buildings and this was all paired with synchronized thwacking in rhythm like the hands on an old clock. To me it was surreal, for some reason it felt like I didn’t have a restraint on where I could go in life. I loved hitting the ball and the more I did the farther it would go. This led me to actually believe hard work could do something for me in the sport. At the end of the first day I was hitting it past the high school students in the program and my hands were bleeding.

Fast forward a couple of years, my bleeding hands had formed calluses and I was enrolled in a new type of free youth golf center near where my family had moved in Brooklyn: The CityParks Foundation Junior Golf Center. I would always refer to this place as my second home later on in life. So much was taught to me there. Firstly, what was entailed in the game of golf: etiquette. Which summed up is pretty much to be honest and respectful of others. Secondly, a respect for tradition and your elders. Finally, communication with the people around you. These three concepts became the pillars for my character today.

See the thing is, once you actually know how to play golf it can be a single player game or it can be a multiplayer one. And I don’t mean this only literally. To explain, I mean that in terms of the single player aspect (playing alone) you learn how to come up with practice routines, learn your weaknesses/tendencies, how to scout out different topography, how to calm yourself, and ultimately how to be humble. In the multiplayer (playing in a group) aspect, you learn how to introduce yourself to others, understand class structure, how to listen, how to speak up, how to judge character, how to confront, and how to compete. All of these skills both single player and multiplayer help an individual reflect and understand social situations.

Golf isn’t all good though, what I described to you in the previous section were traits of an honest golfer who plays by the books. If you don’t play by the books or if you observe others who don’t, then you pick up “skills” of deception, manipulation, and bias. Another point to note is the impact of golf on the environment. Golf is horrible for the environment. I didn’t realize this as a child because who could ever think that trees and grass in the middle of a concrete jungle could be harmful to the environment but it is. It wastes tons of water and displaces the local ecosystem. Not to mention the faulty class structure and social hierarchy attached to the sport.

Yet I’m indebted to the game. The organization (CityParks) I went to after Chelsea piers was a nonprofit organization looking to help inner city kids stay active and learn life skills for free. That was a mission I could stand behind because I was a product of it. They took me in and raised me like a family. I gained friends who were like siblings to me and coaches who were the extra parental figures I needed. Eventually I became decent at the sport alongside my friends from the organization and we did pretty good for middle/high school students. I was even ranked within the top 10 for my age division in the state at one point. However, after I had realized that I couldn’t afford to continue playing the sport at competition level I took up a coaching position for the same organization that raised me.

I was the first kid to go through the program and coach at 16. I set the path so other graduates from the program could also have a part time job while working for the community. If there’s anything to takeaway from my story with the game of golf it should be this: I learned the grass is greener depending on where you hit the ball that day. A bad shot leads to you thinking there’s no greener grass and if you hit a good shot, you may end up thinking that the grass is as bright as can be. This is of course just a reference to understanding how to think. While you do control whether you think the grass is greener, you also control the shot.

Learn to both master your outlook on things as well as the actions that lead up to the outlook.