The Virtue Series: Honesty
There is one game that is so difficult to master that it is hard even to get to the level of being considered “just bad” at it. That game is golf. You can get bad at basketball very quickly. “There’s the hoop. Here’s the ball. Throw the ball through the hoop.” Done!
You’re bad at basketball already.
Golf: “Here’s the club, there’s the hole. Just hit the ball in the hole.
Swing one: miss the ball. Terrible.
Swings two through four: miss the ball. You are now one over par. Still terrible.
Swing five: hit the ball 30 feet. You are now a bogey golfer.
Swing six: try to hit it further. Whiff. Never touched the ball. You are a double bogey golfer.
“Wait, I missed the ball. That shouldn’t count.”
“It does! It is the very first rule of golf: Rule 1.1. If you intend to hit the ball but miss, it counts as a stroke.”
“Wait, how many rules are there for this game?”
“Easily over 1,000.”
“Are all of them as dumb as this one?”
“Well, how about this rule – if you fail to record your correct score for any reason, it means you either forfeit the match or you get an automatic two stroke penalty?”
“But what if I honestly miscounted!!!?”
“Sorry.”
Swing seven: you hit your best shot. It goes 120 yards but hooks like a banana and goes into the woods. After five minutes you never find it. Horrible.
“That ball cost me two dollars. Sheeeooot!”
“And a penalty stroke.” I add. “You have to go back to where you were and hit it again. You are hitting stroke nine.” Disastrous.
You are so mad that you take a mighty whack and hit a foot behind the ball. Your divot flies 20 feet and you think you broke your wrist. Abysmal.
Four strokes later you are on the green and, after five putts back and forth, you get the ball in the hole. “Well, that’s an 18. Not bad,” you say.
“True, you’re ‘not bad’…yet. You are still regarded as terrible, awful, even atrocious. You have a ways to go before you are considered ‘not bad’.” To be “just bad” at golf is not easy.
Next week I am playing golf with my grand-nephews. I will be coaching them in the only sport where you call a foul on yourself, even if you and God are the only ones who see it! It is a game where acting with integrity, showing consideration to others, and taking good care of the course are part of the code of conduct. (You can get kicked off the golf course for swearing or throwing a club in anger.)
I will talk to them about how your body gives you immediate feedback about your swing. Pay attention to what a good shot feels like and what a bad shot feels like. In golf your body knows good from evil. Good is good. “Do that again!” Bad is bad. “Don’t do that.”
It’s a great lesson in basic morality!
Mike Shaughnessy is the founder of Grandly and used to be a very good golfer. Honest!