The never-ending joy ride of golf…twists and turns, hills and valleys, doglegs and aerated greens. Oh yes, today was the later, with sand galore ping-ponging the ball like an arcade machine, every which way but in. It took a few holes to make adjustments for the sluggish rotation. It made me realize how many mid-course corrections golfers must do on a daily basis–from whirling wind, to snail-like greens, bare lies, dew and goose poop too.
With the aerated greens like a kid’s sandbox and firm fairways the ball was reacting rather abnorm
ally. It made for a test of all sorts. When on the fourth hole, uphill par 3, my tee shot hit the first cut in front of the green and rolled 30 yards down the hill, I realized today was going to be a round of patience, recovery and boomerang golf. Glad to have the Golfing Angels on the bag with their gifts and guidance.
It takes extreme adaptability to conjure up consistency during these changing times on course. Golfers’ flexibility isn’t just about a full turn. More importantly, it’s about being able to quickly modify the swing to take advantage of what lies before them during these yo-yo fluctuations, by constantly sizing up the situation to follow through on the best trajectory. An ebb and flow is needed at all times to stay on course.
Ricocheting circumstances made trusting the Angels’ assistance touchy. With drastically different from normal conditions, there were many more “are you kidding me,” “what the heck” and “no way” than on a typical day. The Angels were fine with this scenario and equipped to assist in mastering the day of quicksand putts and oodles of trust.
It also took 
acute awareness to ascertain the sink line and speed spot (see blogs titled Putting Assistance for clarification). With sandy holes saturating the green, identifying the sink line was like finding an emerald green ball marker. This called for drastic measures…leaving it totally up to the Angels and trusting their fall-in line was on target. They supply the sink line by aiming the line on the ball toward the hole with the break they determine. To gauge the speed of the putt, their guidance on downhill putts was to use the actual hole for feel and for uphill putts, to add 25% of the hole’s distance to feel the shot. It was a knee-knocking day.
Flexibility, faith and being deeply rooted like the mighty oak are valuable traits on and off the course of life.
4ORE!