Chip Shots: Watching Golf – Time Unexpectedly Well Spent
July 22, 2022 at 10:06 p.m.
Chip Shots: Watching Golf – Time Unexpectedly Well Spent
By Chip Davenport-
I’ll tune into and out of the majors during the weekends they’re televised. This is how infrequently I watch golf. I usually jump off the band wagon when Tiger Woods isn’t in the hunt. This year’s British Open, however, was compelling even though Tiger, showing signs of physical damage, had an outing that appears to be a harbinger of his career ending sooner rather than later.
I usually like watching tranches of the British Open because this formidable field of golfers tends to experience troubles on host courses’ holes like problems average golfers experience here on area courses. The pros, in flashes, feel closer to an average person’s woes on the links.
Australia’s Cameron Smith imploded Saturday around the 13th through 16th holes in last Saturday at the same time Rory McElroy seemed to be on pace to surpass Woods’ scoring record for the open, which would also have been a record for any major to boot.
Sunday, however, Smith shot a 64, eight strokes under par, to roar back to the top of the field with five consecutive birdie holes on his way to a 20-strokes under par, 72-hole 268 stroke finish.
This hit home for me, not as a golfer, in recent moves made in the company I serve in my vocational role. Thanks, in advance, for indulging a rare scene switch to my vocation. After all, I promised over 20 months ago I wouldn’t allude to it much.
We recently moved a team member in our aluminum castings company to his first management position in his lengthy career. There are numerous times shortly after this promotion he wished he hadn’t accepted the move.
I won’t laundry list his reasons for the sinewave of emotions he experienced since his bump-up, but a few weeks ago I gave him the following advice.
I told him he’s going to make incorrect decisions, but he will be fine if he knows very quickly his decisions are not as viable as he thought they would be if he is ready – in turn - to move off those not-so-viable decisions immediately.
“I’ve been in my field 37 years with 24 years in varying levels of management,” I told him. “I still occasionally get in my car at varying hours of the early or late evening thinking to myself, ‘everything I touched today turned to liquid, um, excrement.’
“I also realize – at the end of those days - I can return to my company to clean the slate the following day.”
I watched Cameron Smith do the same. The lad could have beat himself up, set his sights on the next match, or made other defeatist choices and finished the open around the lower half of the top ten.
When I tuned in to NBC late Sunday morning, however, he was roaring back toward the top while many fans might have been watching, ready to make a premature coronation for McElroy.
Smith played to his strength - putting in particular - and it appeared he knew he had room to climb the leader ladder focusing on his greatest core strength.
I’ve done the same. I’ve reminded myself what strengths carried me this far, and I’ve asked myself if those strengths are useful for favorably reversing unfavorable results.
Smith’s Calder Cup hoist is going to be fresh in my memory if I have a day like I described in the future. I made sure I saw our team’s newly crowned manager early last Monday morning to be sure he was thinking the same thing I thought.
To my pleasant surprise he also saw Smith turn his late-round Saturday implosion around to a stellar Sunday performance. We agreed there is no game whose anxiety lives rent free in a person’s head the way the game of golf lives there.
I’ll tune into and out of the majors during the weekends they’re televised. This is how infrequently I watch golf. I usually jump off the band wagon when Tiger Woods isn’t in the hunt. This year’s British Open, however, was compelling even though Tiger, showing signs of physical damage, had an outing that appears to be a harbinger of his career ending sooner rather than later.
I usually like watching tranches of the British Open because this formidable field of golfers tends to experience troubles on host courses’ holes like problems average golfers experience here on area courses. The pros, in flashes, feel closer to an average person’s woes on the links.
Australia’s Cameron Smith imploded Saturday around the 13th through 16th holes in last Saturday at the same time Rory McElroy seemed to be on pace to surpass Woods’ scoring record for the open, which would also have been a record for any major to boot.
Sunday, however, Smith shot a 64, eight strokes under par, to roar back to the top of the field with five consecutive birdie holes on his way to a 20-strokes under par, 72-hole 268 stroke finish.
This hit home for me, not as a golfer, in recent moves made in the company I serve in my vocational role. Thanks, in advance, for indulging a rare scene switch to my vocation. After all, I promised over 20 months ago I wouldn’t allude to it much.
We recently moved a team member in our aluminum castings company to his first management position in his lengthy career. There are numerous times shortly after this promotion he wished he hadn’t accepted the move.
I won’t laundry list his reasons for the sinewave of emotions he experienced since his bump-up, but a few weeks ago I gave him the following advice.
I told him he’s going to make incorrect decisions, but he will be fine if he knows very quickly his decisions are not as viable as he thought they would be if he is ready – in turn - to move off those not-so-viable decisions immediately.
“I’ve been in my field 37 years with 24 years in varying levels of management,” I told him. “I still occasionally get in my car at varying hours of the early or late evening thinking to myself, ‘everything I touched today turned to liquid, um, excrement.’
“I also realize – at the end of those days - I can return to my company to clean the slate the following day.”
I watched Cameron Smith do the same. The lad could have beat himself up, set his sights on the next match, or made other defeatist choices and finished the open around the lower half of the top ten.
When I tuned in to NBC late Sunday morning, however, he was roaring back toward the top while many fans might have been watching, ready to make a premature coronation for McElroy.
Smith played to his strength - putting in particular - and it appeared he knew he had room to climb the leader ladder focusing on his greatest core strength.
I’ve done the same. I’ve reminded myself what strengths carried me this far, and I’ve asked myself if those strengths are useful for favorably reversing unfavorable results.
Smith’s Calder Cup hoist is going to be fresh in my memory if I have a day like I described in the future. I made sure I saw our team’s newly crowned manager early last Monday morning to be sure he was thinking the same thing I thought.
To my pleasant surprise he also saw Smith turn his late-round Saturday implosion around to a stellar Sunday performance. We agreed there is no game whose anxiety lives rent free in a person’s head the way the game of golf lives there.
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