by Rick Surlow, Publisher
When the great Ben Hogan was asked many years ago by Tom Waston how many shots he felt he missed in his final round of 67 to win the 1951 U.S. Open, he warmly said, “Every shot is a missed shot – unless it goes in the hole.”
I guess that means we have only 18 “make” shots per round. All the misses are merely stepping stones to arrive at the shots that go in the hole.
What a refreshing notion to know that it is virtually impossible to play this game perfectly. What it’s really about is making good “misses” to position yourself to “make” the ball dive into the hole 18 times each round.
For some peculiar reason, this notion lessens the negative effect on the psyche when one chili dips or shanks a shot. Unless, of course, those severe misses manage to find the right hole to slip into. It is always amazing when a bad shot goes good. You are grateful for the accomplishment, but embarrassed by the means.
Much more often than not, my severe misses usually mean a higher score, thus more opportunities to try to “make” my ball reach its specific destination.
I try to play with the realization that perfection is out of my reach, but that it’s a whole lot of fun to play every shot as if perfection was possible.
Which it is, come to think of it – because every day on a golf course is as close to perfection as a golfer needs to get.