In a departure from my typical posts about education, leadership, and children….today I’m going to write a bit about my experience learning to play golf. Thus far it has been one of two things:

Absolute satisfaction.

or

Muddled confusion laced with fury.

The smallest thing can turn a swing from smooth to clunky, and making adjustments on the course is difficult. My husband often jokes around saying, “Golf is an easy game!” The humorous irony being the moment you start thinking that I give you about two holes until you’re melting into a puddle of grumbly, confused sadness. As Arnold Palmer said,

“Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening – and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.”

I have found golf to be a gratifying way to spend the day outside, it’s a sport that keeps you in the moment. Recently I’ve had a few rounds that I felt really good about and proud of. There’s nothing like pride to make a golf ball want to humble the hell out of you. I was not proud of yesterday’s round, I was inconsistent and I couldn’t hit anything longer than my 7 iron without topping it. After the front 9 I decided that keeping score was increasing my frustration, and stress is a silly thing to pay money for….so I decided to try keeping score with emojis. What if, instead of counting strokes, I qualified my play with everyone’s favorite emotive graphics?

🤬- After a frustrating front 9, I finally had a grilled cheese sandwich and thought the subsiding hanger might give way to more consistent play. It did not. I swore. A lot.

😡- This is when I made two decisions: this round sucks, so I’m done keeping score since that’s only making it worse. And secondly: It must really suck to be my husband right now because I am no fun at all.

😱- Screeeeaaaaaaaaaaam.

😏- Oh hey golf skills, nice to see you again.

🤷🏼‍- Excellent tee shot, terrible putting…meh.

🌾- After a lot of walking around in the pokey dried out brush on this hole to try and find my ball my legs were all itchy.

🤞🏻- At this point, every time I swing I’m holding my breath because who knows what will happen.

🌬- This hole was very windy.

🚗- Crushed a 220 yard drive (downhill….but still).

And that’s the thing about golf….it just takes one good hole to keep you coming back. If you’re a golfer…and your game is falling apart and you’re wondering when you forgot how to play…try emojis sometime, if only for the opportunity to tell a story that’s better than the numbers.