"In a recent interview, Tiger Woods said something that I found interesting: ‘In golf, mental practice is crucial because the ball sits still on every shot. Unlike, for example, hockey, tennis or basketball, golf is a game of creation, not reaction. Negative thoughts and anxiety can easily intrude when an athlete has to initiate a motion.”
These words helped me to articulate why I love golf so much...it IS an act of creation, not reaction. An athlete since childhood, I’ve tried competitive sports like tennis, aikido, track and field, swimming, and team sports like basketball, softball and volleyball in junior high and high school (way before Title IX was even a concept). I even completed a 4,000 mile cross-country bicycle trip. Yet nothing has really sustained my interest quite like golf has. I’m not one to be motivated by reacting to someone else’s serve, pitch or volley.
In his newsletter ,"Painters Keys", Robert Genn continues…"the mental practice that goes on between finding the ball and striking the ball is the most crucial. It's looking at and thinking about your next moves on a work-in-progress that means the most and can get you into the most trouble". In my recent article on golf, I called it mental chatter that gets in the way by either setting up expectations of what's possible instead of staying present in the moment and hitting the ball quietly and easily.
I agree with my business partner, Bruce Gill’s comments that “golf is more than a great game; it’s an opportunity to achieve self mastery—an excellent vehicle for personal insight, experimentation, growth and transformation. As a shared activity, it is a context for building personal and professional relationships. Playing the game can foster access to that other game called business. In a larger sense, golf is a way and a means for success in life.”
I spoke at the 2005 Women of Color Conference at Spelman College this past May about the importance of playing golf as an essential tool to gain visibility and access to and build relationships with important decision-makers and colleagues. In a 2003 Catalyst survey, more than 40 percent of 705 women in Fortune 1000 companies cited "exclusion from informal networks" as the key factor holding them back at work. Golf is an essential and serious business tool. Not knowing how to play is no longer a viable excuse for excluding yourself from these important relationships. Take a few lessons, play a few practice rounds. Stay focused on the real objectives of this endeavor—building relationships, visibility and access—rather than deploring your golf game. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT YOUR GOLF.
Elizabeth Miu-Lan Young
