Doglegs andLife

It is easy to pull life analogies out of golf — or is it golf analogies out of life?  Anyway, this one occurred to me yesterday.

There is this dogleg-left par five hole on the nearby course, the only par five on this 9-hole course.  You can’t see the green until you get to the turn.  The distance/positioning of the creek/ trees combine so that no human I know could approach the green from the tee box.  That is, you have to get to the joint in the dogleg (for me, two shots, for some, one) before you can even see, much less take a shot at the across-the-creek/up-the-hill green.  In that sense, I always tell myself on the tee box (particularly after a bad tee shot) that the first shot doesn’t matter much (particularly if I already hit it) since the goal, at least at that point, is to get to the turn so I can see/take a shot at, the elevated green.

There is a lot of fruit there for the picking, but what came to mind the other day was that the next shot, the one I am lining up for now, is the one that matters.  However it got there, the ball is where it is, and there is no way on God’s green earth (golf course) I can hit the next shot until I hit this one.