|
Published in the Wall Street Journal
18 April 1997
EXTRAORDINARY GOLF IS JUST A CLUB TOSS
AWAY
by Paul Spencer Sochaczewski © 1997
Golfers, it often seems, have genes for schizophrenia.
Every golfer knows this scenario:
You hit a wonderful shot. "Great drive/pitch/putt" exclaims
the Optimistic Half of the golfer's brain. "You can do it again."
"No you can't" challenges the Pessimistic Half. And in
the self-fulfilling prophecy, the next shot dribbles and ploofs
into the lake. Pessimistic Half wins again. You think seriously
about heaving your clubs into the same lake that just devoured your
Titlelist Tour Balata.
Which is why I find it cathartic to fling golf clubs and still feel
good about myself.
Welcome to the School for Extraordinary Golf, a new approach to
golf that emphasizes personal development and biofeedback. And lots
of club throwing. It's an ashram where the meditation is enhanced
by hurling junk-shop 4-irons.
The School is the creation of Fred Shoemaker, a revolutionary disguised
as a wholesome golf pro. His goal: to alter the culture of golf
from a focus on the techno-fix to an arena for exploration, discovery
and freedom.
Shoemaker, a disciple of the fictional Shivas Irons, the sage Scottish
hero of Michael Murphy's classic Golf in the Kingdom, endorses the
concept that "golf is a creative tool. If you're not creating
you're dying. Play a game that's worth playing."
Shoemaker was on the fast track to living the golfing dream. Some
20 years ago, at age 21, he went on the tour. "Everyone said
how happy I should be, but I wasn't," he says. "People
approached golf, and life, from the point of view that things are
wrong. My swing is wrong. My relationship is wrong. Why should we
listen to that crazy voice?"
My crazy voice becomes apparent early in the School's three day
session. Each of us is videotaped swinging a five-iron while a School
for Extraordinary Golf pro swings behind us, providing a point of
reference of what a smooth swing looks like.
My first swing is not a thing of beauty. "The way you swing
tells you how you run your life," Fred explains. Suddenly sobered,
I watch my hunched-over posture, my rushed, off-balance swipe.
We are filmed again, this time throwing the club. The club-tossing
generates a more fluid swing, more rhythmical than the first.
Our group of 16 students includes golfers with handicaps ranging
from scratch to 36. Bill, who has been playing some thirty years,
complains that his golf is so erratic that not only is he not having
any fun but he suspects he is no fun to play with. Tucker, a thirtysomething
businesswoman, wants to transcend fear and simply enjoy the game.
Peter, a teaching pro who also plays on the European tour, has come
to the School to regain his confidence. "I used to be able
to get up and down from anywhere within 50 yards," he says.
"Then a coach told me what I should be doing and I lost the
magic." It's somehow both reassuring and scary to realize that
even a guy who hits a drive 260 yards has self-doubts.
Okay, Fred, make us better golfers.
That approach doesn't get me far. Shoemaker makes it clear that
the "other" golf schools focus on techno-fixes where gurus
tell the students what they should do. "That's a negative approach,"
he counsels. "The student is saying "I'm no good the way
I am. Can you make me better?" By contrast, at the School for
Extraordinary Golf, the recurring mantra is "what's happening?"
We are encouraged to feel what's going on. In our bodies. In our
golf games. And yes, in our lives. "If you're going to fix
your golf game you might have to change your life."
Garry Lester, one of the School's golf pros, explains. "You
can recreate yourself playing golf. The future is possibility. Each
next shot can be extraordinary. And if you hit a lousy shot, and
the voices scream, so what. Just say 'thank you for sharing'".
"The future is possibility." I've heard that concept phrased
dozens of different ways in dozens of personal development workshops.
Is this psychology or sport?
During an early morning course-walk, Kim Larsen, a teacher at the
School, deliberately shanks a shot into the pond. "What is
your reaction when you hit a bad shot?" he asks. Most of us
groan and make black jokes. "Why do people get nervous when
they step up to the first tee? Because they are afraid they will
repeat a bad shot from the past. That's absurd. Why not create a
good shot out of possibility?"
Australian golfer Greg Norman employed this re-framing technique
to try to break out of the self-doubt hell that he created when
he blew a six-stroke lead on the last day of the 1996 Masters. Norman
wound up losing by five-strokes to Nick Faldo in a performance one
journalist compared to a "horrifying slow-motion death that
was evocative of an old Sam Peckinpah film." "Let's face
it," Norman said. "I'm not the only one who's ever blown
a lead. I screwed up badly. [But] I'll just think about the 63s
I've shot here. If you keep thinking about the worst round you've
ever had in your life, you're going to keep on playing that same
round." Which proves that philosophy is good, but you still
have to put the ball in the hole - Norman played poorly in his trial-by-fire
at the 1997 Masters and missed the cut.
Shoemaker set up a scenario that has occurred to all golfers. "Let's
say I hit a lousy shot. The next time I get set to hit a similar
shot I say 'I can't.' And the irony is that by failing, by hitting
a bad shot, I get to be right. It's safer to fail than it is to
step into a new identity that I'm not sure of. This costs me my
freedom."
We spend our three days on a deep green golf course in Palm Springs,
California, within sight of brown, snow-topped mountains. We dance
with our chips, we watch the sparkles on the ball during putts,
we notice the ball spin in the air, half in shadow, half in the
desert sun. Shoemaker tells us: "If you don't take a chance
here, then where?"
* * * * *
It is now several weeks since my stint at Shoemaker's ashram.
Does the School for Extraordinary Golf resemble a revelatory visit
to a golfing Lourdes, following which I shout "Hallelujah,
I can putt!" and throw away my Jack Nicklaus instructional
videos? Nope, there are no miracles here.
Is my golf swing now consistently smooth and lyrical? Get real.
Does every ball go where I want it to? If you ask that question
you obviously have never played golf.
But once in a while I sense a ray of possibility. The other day
I parred the 18th hole of my club, which involved a classic long,
straight drive, a fearless five-iron over a lake that has gobbled
many of my balls, a long, curving uphill putt and a character-building
one-metre putt to finish. I had rhythm and I danced and I heard
music.
Could I par the hole again? My Pessimistic Half sneers "Don't
bet on it." But hey, there's always possibility.
___
The School for Extraordinary Golf runs its courses in California,
New York and the Philippines.
The School for Extraordinary Golf
PO Box 22731
Carmel
California 93922
USA
Tel. 800-541-2444. 408-625-1900
Fax. 408-625-1976
E-Mail: extragolf@aol.com
|
