My crisis … after my first-ever golf lesson

‘Are you swinging in the mirror?” — my wife, upon seeing me, in fact, swinging in the mirror. 

“No.” — me, lying. 

There’s no way around this one, is there? Back was bent. Hips were turned. Shoulders were turned. Arms were flared out. Wrists were cocked. And there I was, frozen, staring back at the image behind me, and there my wife was, confused, looking at the oddity in front of her. 

We, the golf obsessed, are all guilty of this. Mirrors are but a window to our deepest swing thoughts. And they’re for brushing our teeth. But my self-reflective tutorial was different. You see, I took golf lessons last year. 

For the first time. And I started playing when I was 14. 

And I have a certain way of moving the club back. And through. And I was OK. 

But I was shown the right way. And it was great. 

For like every 10th swing. 

So here we are. With a problem. And it’s not swinging in the mirror at 1 a.m. on a Tuesday, though we should probably address that at some point, too. But this is bigger. It’s a crisis! To borrow football terms, it’s this:

Do I punt? Or do I go for it? Do I give up on the knowledge gained through my lessons and stick to old reliable? Or do I give that up and really try to improve, knowing that it may take a long while — or that I may even digress? 

Deep one, right? You’ve probably asked these kinds of questions elsewhere in life, too. Careers. Relationships. A lot. And all that’s too big for just me, so I asked for help. To a special group of folks, I recently asked this:  

You are going to be my golf coach! (Lucky you!) Here’s my problem. I’ve been playing golf since I was 14. That’s a long time….