Win. Yes I want to win. He wants to win. You want to win. No one wants to lose. Winning is good but losing is equally important. Yet there are always more losers than winners out there. The road to conquest goes through the path of defeat. It is loss that leads to success. It is experience that brings triumph and experience comes through losing. Win or lose, a game should be played in style and with etiquettes. After all in the end it's all about having fun and being one with the greenery.
My youngest son Qadir and my youngest nephew Mr. Sairam both are high school students and golfers in the making. They decided to play some competitive golf, they paired with their respective coaches and announced a match. Both veterans and their students began to train at the range day and night. They exchanged idioms and traded braggings. Their excitement touched skies and their eagerness over boarded. The whole crowd in the club got involved and people were already taking sides.
Mr. Q and Mr. S had a competition in clothing too. Qadir wore a light green shirt and white pants, white cap, white sleeves, black belt and black Adidas shoes. Mr. Sairam was dressed in a yellow shirt, light brown pants, sleeves, belt and Under Armour shoes all black. They both looked like golf models on the tee. Mr. Shahbaz, one of the best golf coaches in the country, came in brown attire, walking in a winner’s style and manner. Mr. Shahzad, a freelancer, a carefree individual and a seldom coach came in with no consideration to his outlook. His golf kit was worn out and ancient. He borrowed gloves from a nearby golfer. He walked half heartedly, yawned and had rheum in his eyes. A shabby and rusted fellow daring against the top coach in the country who also happened to be his elder brother. On the other hand his partner Mr. Sairam carries a gray head on green shoulders.
We were playing behind them to watch the match while we played along. Mr. Qadir is above six feet and very well built. Earth squeaks when he walks. He is a long hitter. Three hundred plus is his normal driver shot. Mr. Sairam is a calculative genius, a guy who loves range and its specifications. They both had trained their butts off for a match between cousins. The first golf match of their lives. They sent WhatsApp teasers to each other through anything the internet could offer. Like gifs, cartoons and funny videos.
In today’s match we witnessed cross fairway blasters, knocks at the tree trunks, innocent shanks, and saber rattling of swings. There was a display of cute putts, artistic chips, grand shots and greenly drives.
The crew in today’s match is a great presentation of the story of human representation on earth. When a few of them stroll down on the perpendicular fairways of age, the adolescents ascend to the greens of maturity. Nature toys with us in a consistent voyage of non stop rain & drain of life. The pros carry experience and skill on their side and hold their aim high. I like the combination of this flight. The young took the best available golfers on their sides so experience and skill accompanied them. The experienced golfers brought in the power of youth to their crew.
Mr.Shahbaz & Qadir had the upper hand throughout the match. They maintained their lead for the duration of the match. Mr. Sairam and Mr. Shahzad were determined to compete fiercely. They resisted the onslaught and kept the battle red. In short, they knew only an extraordinary staging could take them over the bridge. They gave the game all they had. Mr. Sairam kept his side of the bargain and it was Shahzad’s turn to perform to perfection. They were losing by one at seventeen. Mr. Shahzad left his carelessness aside and scumming all his concentration dropped a long dramatic putt bringing his team one up. A much needed birdie turned the tables there and then. This extraordinary putt put the other team on defensive. The underdog Shahzad was now the lord of the day.
Dancing in the air, cropping the applause from the crowd, he threw a rain of satire on the otherwise hero Mr. Shahbaz. Mr.Qadir had contributed his part of the share in this game. Despite his inter-fairway drives he displayed great recovery shots on the field. Responsibility lied on Mr. Shahbaz’s shoulders now. Mr.Shahbaz was preoccupied mentally still on the seventeenth green while he was playing the eighteenth. Amazed in awe of the unbelievable and unbearable putt of his opponent. On the other hand, inspired by his earlier achievement, Shahzad didn’t stop there; he was determined to convince the audience that the day belongs to him. On the last green when Qadir & Shahbaz still had the game in hand, he landed a chip right in the hole making the impossible possible in a row. Another wonderful birdie left no
room for any miracle that could save Shahbaz. There was no flower left that he would pluck from the garden of his experience.
Qadir faced defeat like a man and accepted it with an open heart. He congratulated his cousin and his partner. Shahbaz was speechless. Drowned in despair he was cursing himself. He wouldn’t mind losing a match but losing to Shahzad was not the defeat he anticipated. The hero was beaten badly, by a vagabond, a wanderer and a small fry. I have advice for the losing team here, concluding with a quote sent by Mr. Sairam, one of today's winners.
“I never lose. I either win or learn.” -Nelson Mandela.
By
Ahsan Jamil
Golfer, Author, Poet, Blogger, Entrepreneur, Wanderer
Email: Golfaij@gmail.com
Website: Golfaij.com