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Golf Lessonsby Dina GanIt was an unseasonably warm weekday in late February. Naturally, the first thought that came to mind was, “Hmmm, it’s warm enough to hit some balls.” So I took a drive up the winding path that leads to my happy place: the local driving range. I still had some money on my frequent user card from last year, so there was no fussing with spare bills as I got a small bucket from the machine. The range was so crowded that I actually had to wait for a stall. But it gave me time to reflect on why I love the game so much. Golf has given me both pleasure and pain over the years, but it has also taught me a thing or two. Herewith, my short list of things I’ve learned from playing golf: 
1. There’s no such thing as trouble if you know how to get out of it. Golf is a sport that knocks you, or rather your ball, down into hard-to-reach places like sand traps and beds of pine needles where low-hung branches impede your backswing. But no matter where my ball lies, I try and take the shot. There’s glory in those great escapes. 
2. Don’t think too much. When I first learned to play golf, I was analytical ad nauseum. I had my husband take video of my golf swing and I’d review it in slow motion. I actually carried a list of reminders that I’d review before teeing up, like “left arm straight” and “head down.” Eventually I realized that so much goes into a single shot that it’s impossible to think about it too much. At some point, you need to just let it rip. 
3. There will always be someone better. Usually, when I play golf, it’s with my husband, who shoots in the 80s. He will probably always be a better golfer than me, but he’s got about 20 more years of playing experience. When we play, it’s usually with other men, and they are usually better than me, or at least they hit the ball farther. Actually, my sister, who never plays golf, can hit the ball farther than me. So can my 11-year-old nephew. But golf is really a game of self-improvement. Unless you’re a televised professional, there’s no need to impress anyone but yourself.
4. There will always be someone worse. Usually, I am not one of the better players in a foursome. But occasionally, there will be the old guy with arthritis who just can’t swing the club like he used to. And sometimes there’s the average golfer who is having a rough day. In golf, no one is immune from The Really Bad Shot. It is polite to look away and pretend you didn’t see it. One reason that even good golfers are modest about their decent shots is that they know that there will come a day when the “someone worse” is them. 
5. Nothing, and everything, matters. A philosopher once said that the essence of wisdom is to realize one’s insignificance. Golf is all about humility in the face of the impossible. Consider for a moment the size of a golf ball compared to the size of a typical 200-acre golf course. We are all but golf balls in the universe. But who is more god-like, the ball who drives the human to obsession, or the human who imbues the ball with the power to drive her to obsession? Well, that is a question. 
 Dina Gan is the former editor-in-chief of aMagazine: Inside Asian America and a coauthor of Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture. She currently resides in Baltimore, MD.
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