"Play a game that you want to play."

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Dear Younger Me :
 
I can’t play golf anymore. I tried to swing the club the other day, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. The best I can do now is sometimes take walks on the course, but my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be so I don’t see much. I have a lot of time to sit and think now, and I often think about the game.
 
It was my favorite game. I played most of my adult life. Thousands of rounds, thousands of hours practicing. As I look back, I guess I had a pretty good time at it. But now that I can’t do it anymore, I wish I had done it differently.
 
It’s funny, but with all the time I spent playing golf, I never thought I was a real golfer. I never felt good enough to really belong out there. It doesn’t make much sense, since I scored better than average and a lot of people envied my game, but I always felt that if I was just a little better or a little more consistent, then I’d feel really good. I’d be satisfied with my game. But I never was. It was always “One of these days I’ll get it” or “One day I’ll get there” and now here I am. I can’t play anymore, and I never got there.
 
I met a whole lot of different people out on the course. That was one of the best things about the game. But aside from my regular partners and a few others, I don’t feel like I got to know many of those people very well. I know they didn’t really get to know me. At times they probably didn’t want to. I was pretty occupied with my own game most of the time and didn’t have much time for anyone else, especially if I wasn’t playing well.
 
So why am I writing you this letter anyway, just to complain? Not really. Like I said, my golfing experience wasn’t that bad. But it could have been so much better, and I see that so clearly now. I want to tell you, so you can learn from it. I don’t want you getting to my age and feeling the same regrets I’m feeling now.
 
I wish, I wish. Sad words, I suppose, but necessary. I wish I could have played the game with more joy, more freedom. I was always so concerned with “doing it right” that I never seemed to be able to enjoy just doing it at all. I was so hard on myself, never satisfied, always expecting more. Who was I trying to please? Certainly not myself, because I never did. If there were people whose opinions were important enough to justify all that self-criticism, I never met them.
 
I wish I could have been a better playing partner. I wasn’t a bad person to be with, really, but I wish I had been friendlier and gotten to know people better. I wish I could have laughed and joked more and given people more encouragement. I probably would have gotten more from them, and I would have loved that. There were a few bad apples over the years, but most of the people I played with were friendly, polite, and sincere. They really just wanted to make friends and have a good time. I wish I could have made more friends and had a better time.
 
I’m inside a lot now and I miss the beauty of the outdoors. For years when I was golfing I walked through some of the most beautiful places on earth, and yet I don’t feel I really saw them. Beautiful landscapes, trees, flowers, animals, the sky, and the ocean – how could I have missed so much? What was I thinking of that was so important – my grip, my backswing, my stance? Sure, I needed to think about those sometimes, but so often as to be oblivious to so much beauty? And all the green – the wonderful, deep, lush color of green! My eyes are starting to fail. I wish I had used them better so I would have more vivid memories now.
 
So what is it that I’m trying to say? I played the type of game that I thought I should play, to please the type of people that I thought I should please. But it didn’t work. My game was mine to play, but I gave it away. It’s a wonderful game. Please, don’t lose yours. Play a game that you want to play. Play a game that gives you joy and satisfaction and makes you a better person to your family and friends. Play with enthusiasm, play with freedom. Appreciate the beauty of nature and the people around you. Realize how lucky you are to be able to do it. All too soon your time will be up, and you won’t be able to play anymore. Play a game that enriches your life.
 
Best wishes . . . don't waste a minute of golf . . . someday it will be gone!
 
 
Signed,
 
 
Me
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Klein: Golf Channel Recorded Olympic Architect Presentations

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Bradley Klein considers the Rio Olympic architect competition after learning a bit more about the process and concludes a few things. Namely, that the latest delay makes it increasingly difficult to finish in time for a 2015 test run (though I'm in the minority that likes this, preferring that the course be fresh to all when the Games roll around).
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The USGA Taking A "Fresh Look" At Anchoring

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Here's Ron Sirak's take on the belly putter talk from Saturday's USGA annual meeting, which as I noted Saturday night was the big takeaway from this year's gathering.

Note that Sirak seizes up on the word "anchoring" coming up in the discussion about taking a "fresh look" at long putters. This is quite a (welcome) shift from just a few months ago at the Walker Cup when the governing bodies were dismissing suggestions they should take another look.

Golf Gods Work Quickly Sometimes: Stanley Wins!

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A week after collapsing at Torrey Pines, Kyle Stanley was the beneficiary of Spencer Levin's Sunday struggles. John Strege explains:

Levin's bid for a first PGA Tour victory was undone by the toxic mix of sand, water and jumping cholla.

It was no less painful to watch than Stanley's implosion in his own bid for victory No. 1 a week earlier, when he needed no worse than a seven at the 72nd hole to win the Farmers Insurance Open, made eight, and lost in a playoff.

"That's golf," Stanley said, attempting to explain the inexplicable.

The upshot was that the Waste Management Phoenix Open was a tournament lost instead of won, notwithstanding the six-under par 65 registered by its winner by default, Stanley, who might have clinched the 2012 PGA Tour comeback player of the year award. He overcame an eight-shot deficit in a single round only a week after his own devasting loss.

Levin graciously sat in the press center and took questions after the round.

Here are the highlights, in case you were distracted by Super Bowl pre-game entertainment Lenny Kravitz and The Fray...

USGA Annual Meeting Quick Roundup: Belly Putter On The Table, Distance Debate And The Nager Inauguration

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There's a lot to parse from today's USGA meeting at the Hilton Post Modern Shopping Center and Executive Suites, Houston but I'll try to just highlight the bullet points for now because there's a loud group next door causing a ruckus on floor 13 and...wait, it's the Bluecoats/Grey Slackapoolaza After Party!

Who knew they'd leave the annual meeting and hit another open bar to regale themselves with tales of free drops and decisions that almost didn't become part of the swelling book! (Which reminds me, I hope Mrs. Driver...yes, that Mrs. Driver, found the lost jewels she called my room asking for! And no, I didn't ID myself and kindly suggested she was looking for two rooms over because I have to rest easily for that 5 a.m. wake-up call.)

Anyway, a few thoughts from lucky floor 13...

-- Anchoring the putter is very much on the table. Easily the takeaway of the day: The USGA and R&A  discussed the belly putter during last week's Far Hills meetings and in particular, the concept of anchoring. It wasn't long ago they were shrugging off the notion of players bracing a putter against their bodies, but according to new USGA President Glen Nager, the sudden market interest in long putters (check out this NY Times Adam Schupak story from Sunday), and to a lesser degree, the notion that some players view it as a form of cheating, has put the anchoring concept on their radar. (I have some great stuff from Nager on this, to be transcribed...).

-- USGA Inc turned a profit again! Praise Our Lord And Savior, Walter Driver. Yes, according to retiring Treasurer (what was in those parting gift bags?) Christopher Liedel, the USGA raked in $7.5 million in profit last year in spite of President Obama and his economy. Oh wait, that's from my cocktail reception notes. Anyway, Liedel said there was "an extraordinary effort at Golf House on delivering quality results" with $251 million in the "investment portfolio." The "financial house is in very good order," he said at the shareholder meeting. Here's the annual report if you don't believe me.

--Dan Burton, Chair of the Equipment Standards committee, announced to the group he can say "with great confidence our relationship with the golf manufacturing community is the best it's been in many years." That's a load off.

--New President Glen Nager is picking up on Jim Hyler's agenda of firm and fast, then multiplying it X 5. I feel Hyler doesn't get enough credit for pushing an agenda that old guard USGA presidents would have felt was outside the bounds of good taste for USGAers to be pursuing (that silly sustainability nonsense!). His tenture will be admired for years to come for having the courage to take on a tough subject in American golfing circles. But Nager sounds like he's going to take it a step further. Check out these comments from his address (these are the actual transcripted comments, not the prepared remarks):

But even Tee It Forward is also not alone enough. Golf courses today are wider, longer, lusher and more costly to maintain for a variety of different reasons. One owners, developers, and architects design courses with the elite player in the mind even though most of the golfers that play the golf courses can’t hit it the distances that the elite players do. Each week we watch on TV the exciting championships put on by the PGA Tour. Those golf courses are groomed for that one week. Then we go back to our golf courses and ask our golf course superintendents to maintain our golf courses to those same kind of pristine conditions. Most avid golfers better has been defined as more difficult, longer, rather than more enjoyable. And for equipment … we see golf courses being changed to accommodate changes in equipment and balls rather than adopting a paradigm of we should change equipment and balls to fit the way golf courses currently exist. For us to truly sustain the game, we’re going to have to consider changing some of these paradigms and reset expectations for great golf courses that are shorter, more smartly set-up, more affordable, and more fun for the average recreational golfer.

--Bifurcation is off the table, not that it was ever on the table. Here's Jim Achenbach on the b word being a no-no, with today's remarks killing John Solheim's concept for three balls and any other ideas folks might have about two sets of rules for pros and hackers.

--It pays to win the British Amateur.  Ryan Herrington noted the amateurs getting more exemptions into the U.S. Open, normally a news story except on a day like today when there was a sense the USGA is prepared to stir things up in the coming two years.

And I'll leave you with one more eye-opening portion of President Nager's address as transcribed by my colleague Ryan Herrington. This one's copied and pasted just for your Wally!

The good news, as Chris has pointed out, the USGA is currently financially stable and strong. Our revenues consistently exceed our expenses. We have a substantial reserve to protect us against unforeseen events and litigation in the market in the face of regulatory initiatives we might implement. and we are particularly fortunate to have a prestigious national championship, the U.S. Open, that generates each year substantial financial resources for us. But we also need to be careful not to play undue financial stress on the U.S. Open if we are to maintain its integrity and reputation. And our recent championship history shows, whether it came from tickets sales or merchandise sales we are not immune from the economic challenges that the entire world is facing.