So you are probably wondering why this post is titled "I played college golf," when most of you know that I play college basketball. Well, it is because I played college golf...this weekend...for Bethel's Golf Team. (that is why I haven't posted in two days)
I won't get into why I had to play, it's a long story. But yes, I played in a college golf tournament this weekend and I was absolutely horrible.
I am not much of a golfer. I have played probably 5 times in my life and only once in the last two years. I played once last July with my brother...and that was it. Up until this weekend of course.
I was told back at the end of February by my basketball coach that I was going to have to play in a gold tournament. I was like okay! There is no way you are being serious, but I will do! Well he was serious.
Up until last weekend, I hadn't heard anything from my coach about golf or the golf coach. I was approached by Bethel's AD and he told me I had to get a hold of the golf coach. I panicked. I thought it was all a big joke, but now my nightmare was finally becoming a reality. I got an email back from the golf coach on Tuesday and he informed me that we were going to shoot a practice round on Thursday and then have a 36 hole tournament on Friday and Saturday.
Mind you, I don't have golf pants, golf shoes, a golf hat, or even my own clubs. Luckily my dad had a set that I was able to use. So I had to borrow everything that I wore the last three days of golf. Which was fine by me.
On Wednesday, I made it a priority for me to get to the driving range so I wouldn't entirely humiliate myself. I left after class around 3 and got there around 3:45 and hit balls for the next hour and half. It was terrible. I found out that I could not drive to safe my life. Every single time I tried, I shanked it. I think I could've drove further with my putter. I didn't think the driving range was going to be very busy, but it was packed. I found a nice little corner where I thought nobody would really see me. It was perfect. The people around me left, so I had about 30 minutes with nobody around me, and it was just what I hopped for. Finally, nobody to watch me shank balls. That fun quickly ended when the Notre Dame women's golf team came up besides me and started hitting balls. My fun quickly ended when I whiffed the ball 3 times in a row. I figured that it was now probably a good time to go work on my putting skills. That ended up working a little better. Overall, my experience at the range on Wednesday was average.
Thursday came around and it was time to have a practice round. I was so nervous for this. This was the first time that my teammates for only a couple of days were going to experience how bad I was. The practice round was a little rough. It was a beautiful day, but very windy. I didn't even keep score. I couldn't believe how tiring golf was. We finished up our 9th hole and I thought we were done but the coach informed us that we were playing 18. I was exhausted. There were not too many highlights from the practice round. It was fairly chill since it was only practice. The funniest part about the practice round is that on one of the holes, I teed off with my iron (which I did for my entire golf career) and the ball only went up the where the girls tee off from. So I took the short walk up to my ball, and I took a tee out of my pocket, teed it up and swung away. I quickly found out that was illegal to do. After about a 6 hour practice round, I drove back to Bethel, got to my room, took off most of my gold clothes and I laid only the floor for like 15 minutes because I was so tried. One of the things that the practice round taught me is that I was worse than I thought I was. I am terrible, but I did have sone nice puts, nice hits and a coupe of lost golf balls.
Friday. Tournament day. I woke up so nervous. I left Bethel around 7:45 and needed to get to the course around 8:15 for range practice. I was shaking all morning. The one thing that I was more nervous for than anything was who I was going to be paired up with for the tournament. I was afraid that I would be put with super good golfers who were going to be so sick and tired of me because I didn't really know what I was doing. Lucky, I was with another Bethel golfer (Zach) and a Grace golfer (Isaiah) and a Judson golfer (Rob). I was one of the first people out on the range Friday morning and it was an absolutely beautiful and perfect day outside. I hit some balls and tried to get rid of all there nerves that I had. Even though I have played golf 5-10 times in my life, I still had some expectations for myself. I am competitive so I didn't want to be too terrible. I cared and I wanted to do the best that I could. Most importantly I wanted to have fun. My golf coach told me to have the most fun that I possibly can. Tee time on Friday was at 10 so teams started to pour in. There were 28 teams at this tournament. Which is huge. About 10 till 10 Zach and I walked over to the first hole because that is where we got to start. The walk from the range to the first hole had me more nervous than so many basketball games. Which I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. I was scared. I was finally going to see who else we got to golf with. We get to the hole and meet Isaiah and Rob. Within two minutes were laughing and having a good time. I was so thankful that God put us four together. I was able to explain to them that I wasn't very good and they were understanding and assured me to just have fun. That was our goal for the four of us, to have fun the entire time. On Friday we golfed 26 holes because on Saturday it was supposed to storm so we got in as many holes as we could. We golfed non-stop from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. 9 hours of golf!!! We had a great time all of Friday. I learned a lot about the guys I was with and we were having a blast. My goal for each hole was 8 strokes or less and that only happened a couple of times. My worst hole was hole 9. Both times we played that hole I shot a 16. I shanked my ball into the woods every single time. It was rough. Throughout the entire day I was so thankful for the patience that those three guys showed me. Along with their parents as well and my mom and girlfriend. I am so thankful that my mom and Jennifer came to watch me play. It meant so much.
Some of you are probably wondering what my score for the first 18 was. It was terrible. Let's just say I doubled par and then added a couple of more strokes. Par was 72. It was bad. But I had a great time.
Saturday. Now on Saturday it was supposed to rain and storm the entire day. Everybody thought that they tournament was going to be cancelled on Saturday...but it wasn't. I for one, definitely hoped that it would. My bed in my room is right by the window and I can't tell you how many times I looked out my window Friday night to see if it was storming. It was! Every time it was pouring down rain. I thought for sure it would get cancelled. So I got dressed, and walked to my car in the pouring rain, and then drove 35 minutes, in the pouring rain. I forgot to mention, it was super windy and 40 degrees. My shoes were not waterproof and my meet were soaked by the time we even started. Everybody was upset that we had to golf because of how bad the weather was. I was soaked and freezing literally the entire day. Tee time was at 9 so not only was it cold, rainy, and windy, it was still a little dark. I was nervous again because I am not a good golfer when it's sunny and 70 degrees how am I supposed to improve when it's 40 and pouring down rain. We got the hole 9 and I decided to tee off first. I usually teed of first because there was no way that I could hit it far enough to mess up with group who was ahead of us. So I teed off, and shanked it. Straight into the woods. So I did a drop and I went to smash it again. Only this time, as I hit the ball, it rocketed off the rock that said "Hole 9, Par 5," and it bounced back behind me and into the woods behind where we had teed off. I started yesterday with a whopping 16. Then it only got worse. The rain picked up and the wind picked up. I don't think I have ever shivered as much as I did yesterday. I had no idea what to wear golfing when the weather was like that! I was miserable and so was everyone else. Everyone struggled yesterday, although still doing way better than I did. All day yesterday the guys were patient with me and that meant so much to me. God took care of my biggest fear. I would be lying if I said that when we reached the 18th hole that it was one of the greatest feelings ever. I was so excited to be done. The 18th hole was almost by best of the tournament. I was set up to get a par, but then I putted into the water, and then back down the hill and ended up with a 9. My score was also really bad yesterday too.
It was one stroke worse then the first round of 18. Let's just say my score for the 36 holes was the same as the woman's team of Taylor golfers combined.
Overall I had a great experience and had a lot of fun doing it. But now to be a little more serious, I think God used that golf experience to work in my life so that I can be more patience with people who are not as good at some of the things that I am and to be patience with the people who are different than me. Zach, Isaiah, and Rob showed me so much more patience then I deserved. I had never competed in a golf tournament in all of my life and that is totally different then them and they still showed me love. I was taught that I need to be patience with so many more people. They made the experience fun. I tried to have the best attitude I could, but without them being patience I don't think I would've had as much fun. They were all so encouraging to me the entire time too. I literally am awful and they kept telling me that I was fine and they reminded me to have fun. I am so thankful for those three guys. We had such a good time. I think that God also used it to remind me how much I love basketball. I've struggled with my love for the game the past couple of months and I definitely felt God telling me to not take something for granted that I am good at.
I hope that you were encouraged about patience and I also hope you got a good laugh out of what I had to say.
Don't ever be afraid to try something new or something that you are not good at. You might miss out on God teaching you something new.
With that being said, I would also like to retire from college golf. I think my golf career began and ended with the blink of an eye.
God Bless!
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