Fairways, dreams and greens

*Excerpt – Golf Discovered – Find your game before you lose your mind…

First and foremost, I am not a golf professional. Not a club pro nor have I ever played on the PGA tour, Web.com tour, Hooters tour, or any other tour quite frankly. Unless the Wednesday men’s league at Hiland Park golf club or the “Sagamore Cup” 2 ball counts as a “tour”?

In fact, like most of the estimated 20-30 million amateur golfers in America, I’ve never been under par after 18 holes.¹ As well, like many golfers since the age of “Tiger” and before, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with golf, and threatened to quit many times. Often losing my mind…

My handicap has fluctuated from hacker to as low as 4 or so, from the time I discovered this insidious game that became my passion. At one point, golf evolved from just an avocation to my vocation, out of economic necessity and the insistence of many that know my story.

Since 1994 when I was introduced to perhaps the most complicated yet geometrically “scientific” system at that time (the Golfing Machine by Homer Kelly),² this game has taught as well as tormented me. I earned the opportunity to live on a golf course and befriend a brilliant and dedicated golf instructor. He was one of the first in the area to offer computer generated video swing analysis and was certified in this unique swing system based on physics rather than opinion or feel.

Yet after hours of personal instruction and actually seeing myself swing, complete with split screen comparisons to PGA touring pros, I discovered nothing more than utter frustration.  Surrounded by Division 1 college golfers, mini-tour and future PGA tour players, I was the chief chopper of the bunch. I was privileged to tee it up back then with some professional golfers, visit the annual PGA merchandise show, and walk the fairways during championship play. I even had the honor of witnessing perhaps the greatest ball striker of all time, the late Moe Norman³ up close and personal. I was blessed to be surrounded by some of the best golfers in the area.

Eventually I wore out my welcome, as the “monster” in me began to surface and those once my teachers and friends pulled away. I not only lost my game, but some would say my mind as well. My once successful medical device sales career suffered (as did my back from poor mechanics and a bad swing), as I attempted to discover the secret to golf, not knowing my journey was only beginning. The lure of the game had much more in store for me…

Soon after my quest led me back to my birthplace of Upstate N.Y., and yet another golf guru who would again become my friend. The impact this game had on my personal and professional life was and is still profound. It’s been an obsessive attempt to try and find my game, and conquer the demons that haunt my dreams, to succeed on the fairways and greens.