Swing and the Java Plum
There are days when success follows us and times when it leaves us without a prior notice. Life is a race for victory, and sometimes life runs from the winners. No one runs this marathon better than a sports man. Among sports, golf is nothing but a regular punishment with brief intervals. The golf ball is known for its willfulness, it reacts in the strangest of styles and ends up at the most peculiar places. There often comes a time in golfing when we need to go back to the range, online coaching videos, and golf books to regain our swing and control. They introduce us to wonderful golf lessons, amazing techniques and marvelous formulas. We try to translate the attained knowledge at the range where it seems fine. We go home thinking, we are fit to play a resolute round. We try to mirror those lessons at the course only to lose another round again and we accept defeat shyly and shake hands with the winning player, wondering what went wrong. The next day we return to the range only to train for another failure .
A golf shot is a coherent collaboration of the mind, body, the equipment, situation of the ball and geography of the course. Golf is more cerebral than it is somatic. It requires absolute precision, a flawless game plan and intricate course management. Carrying a range finder alone would not be of much use.
Bobby Jones says, “Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course - the distance between your ears.”
Contrary to popular notion, the club is not the only thing that we need to swing; we also need to swing our body. My game continually refuses to improve even though I played plenty of golf in the company of professional golfers and veteran caddies. I tried to learn the art of proper body movement but my tummy prevents me from dancing with that tune. We need to create a complete coordination between the body and the club to hit better. Body movement adds strength to the swing, giving the shot distance and speed.
Talk of the swing and pouring rain outside of my window reminds me that July is the season of clouds and rains; the month of swings hanging from a tree and java plums in the area of the subcontinent, particularly in Punjab.
Swing, song, romance and rain go hand in hand in these lands. The jambul is the greatest gift of the monsoon. The unique, bluest of the blue, small but mighty java plum. British call it an Indian blueberry. Unlike the evergreen jambul tree it’s java plums are short lived, but loved by all. It colors the tongue blue and makes the throat dry. Like the distinctive purple mesocarp, it’s got a taste of its own. Some of us strongly value it for health benefits. The similarity between jamun trees and golf is that their fruits are very short lived. The moments of joy in a round of golf are brief compared to the effort.
While talking about the swings how can we leave out mood swings.
My mood gets uplifted the moment I begin to think about golf. I am always in high spirits on the course. Bad swing, shank, landing in a bunker and hitting inside the water hazards - nothing disappoints me. There is a certain chemistry between me, the greenery and ambiance.
Swings were a very important art in the age of the swords. Before the invention of the bullet; the world was shaped by the swinging sabers.
We can not play any game if we don’t have courage to fail. Determination to come back and a strong will to resist failure is what sportsmanship is all about. Despair is the main ingredient of loss. Only those who wear the necklace of faith and hope do not surrender. Only they can make the comebacks. The stars with bigger stature face higher failings, many sink in the ditch of disappointment and disappear. A few face the problems head on and return to glory, thus climbing the ladder of the legend. Tiger Woods’s health failed him badly but he made a remarkable recovery both in his health and career.
Take these broken wings and learn to fly again. As sung by Mr. Mister
Credits
GolfDigest
By
Ahsan Jamil
Golfer, entrepreneur, blogger, author, poet,
Email: Golfaij@gmail.com
Website: Golfaij.com