The last couple days I have been away with some urgent business. Personal business.
We had to fly to Auckland and visit various professionals which turned out to be all fine. However, I noticed the tone of the population. It’s awfully difficult to quantify a general feeling amongst a population and is nothing more than anecdotal and speculative but I think people have a sense of the atmosphere around them.
The country as a whole seems to be on edge. It seems impatient and cranky. There were a number of instances I noticed this including getting on and off the French made ATR72-600, waiting for the bags at the carousel, getting an Uber, checking in to the hotel, waiting in the reception area of the surgeon’s office and wandering about the city. People are fraught. People are edgy and at the end of their collective tethers. One could point a few fingers I suppose, but I think that may only exacerbate matters. You only need to visit Twitter for that sort of thing.
What I realised is that we golfers are lucky. We have golf. We can be trotting around the course, totally immersed in our own little slice of nature belting the little white ball and soaking in the sun/rain/snow/wind. We have mates to play with or just the game of trying to beat the course by yourself. We are incredibly lucky that golf also comes in many forms. We can watch it on the telly, on YouTube, play golf games on the computer, listen to golf podcasts, go to an indoor simulator, go to the range, go to the course or just doing the simple act of giving the bats a clean.
Golf is a competitive sport, yes, but can be our sanctuary from the manic world we live in just now. It can help us even if we are shooting a million. Take time for you and your mental health but swatting a few around the paddock. Take time away from the bollocks that we see in everyday life to connect with our great sport.
Leave a Reply