This is a cruel game, y’all. With a personal goal to break par, I haven’t even been able to break 80 since the start of the year. The only thing breaking is my heart! Granted, it’s still only January. Yes, I’m being an impatient brat. No, I don’t deserve any sympathy. I’ll admit…I have the tendency to tune out whenever I hear folks complaining about their swing or their equipment. Golf woes in general are rather ridiculous. It’s part of the game people! Embrace it!!

We wish for all of our shots to go the right distance and come to rest in the desired spots. We pray for good lies and lucky bounces. We don’t want anything to do with hazards and penalty shots. We want to avoid obstacles. We want to visualize the perfect ball path and execute the perfect stroke. We don’t want to buckle under pressure. Making zero mistakes makes us look good and feel good. Does it?

Ironically, golf would be boring without the struggles. It may even be pointless. The pleasure comes from enduring the pain…which is inherent and inevitable with golf.

Yesterday, I found myself missing the first nine greens and failing to save par on seven of those nine holes. At the turn, my playing partner was up four in our friendly match. Defeat sounded quite deafening on the 10th tee box. Something kept me going. I thought of a movie I had recently seen, The Revenant. A line in that movie kept my ax to the grind, “As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe. Keep breathing.” I fought my way back and had a chance to square the match. It came down to my opponent’s last putt on 18. He made it. I genuinely congratulated him on a deserving match. Despite the loss, I felt victorious for not giving up so easily.

In this plight to break par, the one thing I must not break is my spirit. I choose to keep breathing.