Golfers & Their Egos: The Good, The Bad, & The Low-Handicappers

It wasn’t until high school that I really caught the golf bug.  Volleyball had always come before golf, partly because I was more skilled at volleyball and had been a big fan of the University of Hawaii volleyball teams since I was a wee one (I still remember going to Klum gym to watch a few games- my memory goes as far back as the days of Toni Nishida for the Wahine and Jason Olive for the Bows).  The other hurdle for golf was money.  Coming from a lower-middle class family, there wasn’t a whole lot of extra cash to throw around.  What little money I had came from delivering newspapers when I was in elementary & middle school.  It wasn’t until later that I landed a much higher paying job delivering pizzas.  Furthermore, I’ve always been pretty tight with my money.  The closest decent golf practice facility growing up was at the rather fancy Ko’olau Golf Course.  I couldn’t believe that anyone would pay $5 for a large bucket of range balls- I certainly wasn’t going to do it unless I was desperate.  So I would go to the putting green and the chipping area and use my own balls, which I found in the bushes at the muni down the road.  I would spend hours there, often times without making one full swing.  Occasionally, I would get lucky and someone would leave half a bucket of range balls on the chipping green.  I would immediately scoop them up and head to the adjacent driving range.  This wasn’t exactly the right thing to do, as I hadn’t paid for the balls.  But the place was understaffed and they seemed oblivious to my antics.  It wasn’t until later that I found out that they knew exactly what I was doing.  When I went into the clubhouse to use the bathroom, one of the assistant pros (I believe his name was Keoni) stopped me.  He introduced himself and asked me my name.  He let me know that he’d been watching me ever since I started showing up to practice there.  Uh oh.  To my surprise, he noted how much my short game had improved and went so far as to say that my short game was “amazing.”  

I thanked him and realized that he had played a role in helping me improve my game by letting me cheat the system a bit.  There have been others that have helped along the way, purely out of kindness.  Several starters at the municipal courses I grew up playing allowed me to play for free when I would arrive an hour before sunset.  Those same starters would let me know which 9 would be faster to play and let me choose which side I wanted to play.  I would not be the golfer I am today without the generosity of those “aunties” and “uncles.”  

More recently, several of the assistant pros at the course where I worked helped me bring my game to the next level.  Two of the assistant pros, in particular, were instrumental in my development.  They gave me free video lessons as well as tips on chipping and putting.  They even customized my irons for me by reshafting them and adjusting the lie angles, all for no charge.  They saw a young guy with potential who was struggling with his game and they did what they could to help.  

Sometimes golf can bring out the best in people.  The game brings people together and can unite folks who otherwise wouldn’t spend time with each other.  Why does this happen?  Perhaps because every golfer is trying to achieve the same thing.  Or more accurately, every golfer is attempting to overcome the same challenge: getting the dimpled ball to go into the hole in the ground in as few shots as possible.  We’ve all been humbled by the game, and we’ve all basked in the glory of that one perfect shot.  We can empathize with each other, and as such, we wish each other well.  

Of course, golf has its dark side as well.  One of the reasons I don’t play competitive golf anymore is that tournament golf can bring out the worst in people.  I played against some major jerks when I was in college.  And for whatever reason, the better the golfers, the more likely they were to be less than friendly.  I played on one of the weakest teams in the conference, and our team along with the other weak team in the conference were full of really good guys (for the most part).  There were three teams that were competing for top honors in the conference, and those teams were filled with young men lacking in character.  Furthermore, if you’ve ever worked in the golf industry, you’ve no doubt run into some rather large egos (usually enormous male egos, to be specific).   As such, I’m perfectly happy to golf at the excellent bargain public courses around town where I play with folks who are out there to have a good time.