For those disillusioned right now on this Election Night I’ll give you this: a couple weeks ago on a golf trip my dad and I had a spectator walk with us, a family friend who had never experienced live golf before.
About five holes into the round, we — a twosome — let the group behind join us to create a foursome (commonplace in golf). I, wearing a New York Jets ski cap, promptly noticed one of the gentleman that joined us was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers ski cap and immediately uttered something to the tune of, jokingly “so I guess we gotta let this Steelers fan join us, huh?”
He laughed, shook my hand, and we had a grand old time.
After the round my family friend was extremely surprised that I had the guts to do that — why I would give this guy grief literally 1 second after meeting him knowing I had to spend the next 3.5 hours with him — if the gentleman found it rude, my family friend reasoned, I’d have to deal with a hater…who wants that experience?
My reasoning doesn’t matter here — I’ve learned body language over 614 rounds of golf in 19 years — but it speaks to a larger point: golf, a game of honor, dignity, kindness and etiquette, involves playing alongside people you may vehemently disagree with on a whole lot of things in life.
So whether you like what happened tonight or not, remember that you can make America great simply by being a nice person and being kind to everyone you come in contact with. If we can do it in golf every single day for four hours at a time, we can do it in life, too.
Leave a comment