 Many of the young golfers with whom I work
are very high achievers- good golfers, good
students, and socially connected. One thing
that I see players consistently faced with is
how frequently they are challenged to squeeze
into their schedule all of the things that
they want to do. As well, there are many who
aspire to be great at golf, who also like to
play other sports or participate in the arts
or in a musical endeavor. The question is,
how can you become a great golfer and do all
of these things? Frequently, the answer is
that you cannot do it! The game of golf
demands an extraordinary time commitment in
order to become extremely proficient. Thus,
for most players the reality is that it
requires a sacrifice in order to achieve at
the highest levels. If you ask any of the
players in the top of the rankings what
they’ve had to sacrifice in order to get
there, you will typically get a very long
list of things they’ve had to do without or
events in their school, family, or social
life that they’ve missed.
What is my point in all of this? You may be
able to achieve or have anything that you
want if you work hard enough at it, but you
cannot have everything that you want. I see
far too many players getting frustrated with
their golf performances when they haven’t put
in the time and effort necessary to
consistently achieve at the highest levels.
These young players want to “have it all”.
This may happen for short periods of time,
but in the long term, something always breaks
down.
I certainly do not have a personal agenda for
any young person’s golf or life choices. As
an example, if someone wants to play multiple
sports in high school and be a part of the
student leadership and have an active social
life, than I would strongly support that- as
long as they don’t also have delusions about
their ability to get a scholarship to play
golf at a Division 1 level or eventually to
play professional golf. In today’s world,
for better or worse, the reality is that
there are far too many boys and girls who are
sacrificing a lot of things in order to
develop their golf skills. While there are
certainly examples of high-achieving junior
golfers who also do a lot of other things,
there are far more players who do not achieve
unrealistic golf goals because of trying to
do “everything” and there are also a lot of
young players who “do everything” and play
great golf for a short time- only to burn out
and fall by the wayside in the college
game.
There are those who argue that this is not
healthy for young people to specialize only
in one sport, and others who argue that
specializing in one thing is the way you
become a master at it.
I strongly advocate striking some balance in
your life so that you don’t put all of your
eggs in the golf basket. There are a lot more
things in life than golf. At the same time,
recognize that if you have too many things
going on outside of golf, you may not be able
to get all that you want out of the
game.
Only you can determine what you
really want out of the game. Figure out how
to strike a balance with the other things in
your world, and be realistic about what to
anticipate that you might get out of your
efforts. Just make sure that you are
realistic, that you continually fine-tune
that balance, and that you regularly make
sure that what you want out of the game is
worth the sacrifice that you’re making.
Then, go after what you want in and out of
golf! Just know that you cannot have it
all.
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