Thought 31MAR2009

THE BRAND NEW GOLFER
The first hole at the Mobile, Alabama, Municipal Golf Course was something to behold on that beautiful spring day several years ago. The tee sat atop a hill, looking down a narrow fairway, and the hole ended at a postage-stamp-sized green, surrounded at the back side by water. It was a hole that did not appear to be very forgiving to the careless or inexperienced golfer. It was a busy Saturday morning, and my foursome was waiting to tee off, as were several others. As the golfers in front of us stepped to the tee, I noticed one man in particular. He was in his early thirties, slightly pudgy, wearing a spotless shirt, trousers, shoes and every other golfing accessory his charge card could buy. Even his golf clubs, bag and pull cart fairly sparkled with "newness."
As we watched, the other three men made decent shots, and then waited as their fourth, the new golfer, stepped forward and teed up his ball. The man looked down the fairway, then carefully addressed his ball, made his backswing and swung mightily, missing the ball completely. His face reddened somewhat, but he did not look up as he again addressed his ball. His second attempt made a noisy whooshing sound, but missed his ball by an even wider margin. No one made any comment, and his three embarrassed friends simply looked away and cleared their throats. For the third time, the new golfer addressed his ball, taking great care to place his feet, position his grip and waggle his club several times.
Finally, he executed a careful and extremely slow backswing, followed by a vicious downswing of his club that barely topped his ball, which fell from the tee and rolled forward about four inches. For a moment he stood perfectly still, reddened face pointed to the ground. He finally looked up at the large group of waiting golfers, and with a perfectly straight face said, "This is the toughest darn hole I ever played!" I have never laughed so hard, nor heard so much laughter on any golf course, before or since.
By Stan Reynolds - from Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul, Copyright 1999 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
To a quick question, give a slow answer - Italian Proverb