R FACTOR FOR GOLF, BY JOHN DAVIES

An excerpt from book "R-Factor for Golf", published by R~Style Publications LLC.


the closer

Theres no security on this earth, only opportunity.
General Douglas MacArthur

If you assume golf is simply a game, then you have lost the great lessons it teaches you through a lifetime of play. Dare I say but those who see golf as a game are victims of this dark, callous society that fails to look beyond the surface and see golf as a soulful test of maturation, inner strength and accountability. The lessons the game provides are ones that take a lifetime to learn and thus the reason why the game builds and ages with us for we do not simply play it but learn from it as it builds us. As you play the game through your lifetime, it captures your heart and soul and furthermore teaches you immeasurable lessons that weave through your entire life. In the oddest twist of fate as you truly understand what the game teaches you, it unravels and your score improves. Golf is the ultimate sport of calm, decisive action and reaction, a harmonious synergy of mind and body that can and will last a lifetime if its ideology is digested whole.

The game is like a twisting metaphor in the wind, a parable if you will, of a pastime that both embodies our life, our passion from our first loving grip of the club as a young player to elder leader. We play the game in our youth with boisterous vigor, the embodiment of virility but often fail because it is only as we age, mellow and refine like a fine Chablis that we learn the subtle nuances, the delicate dance of physical and mental power, control and respect.

And so to consider golf merely as a game, akin to a board-game or pick-up game is a terrible error and injustice. Thus to truly excel at it you must delve deeper into the psyche of the eternal joust, the ancient archer who launches his arrow into the clearest of blue sky or that great proposal when you just have to close. Created by one of the noblest nationalities that has graced this earth of ours, the Scot, golf needs to be first considered from a classical perspective of men (and women) of honor with an eye on its evolution. Through this, the game can teach you more of how to live your life. You learn how to excel on the links but first you need to slow down, breath in and accept its majesty and brilliance. In so doing it will also unveil the conduit of how to prepare and ultimately perform better on the course and yes, provide lessons for life.

It is said that that roughly 60f all business deals are developed on the golf course, which may astonish some but once you truly understand the game, it should be no surprise. For the business leader, the sales driven person, the ability to handle strife in the corporate battlefield and take decisive action is revealed in a round of golf. Truthfully while we are preparing for this game of golf it is preparing us for personal life and career.

In preparing for this grand sport, there are a number of concerns that need to be stressed because as it is marketed today it would appear to be only about big bellowing drives of epic proportions and technological advances that make you wonder if you even need to show up to the course to improve. Young golfers of today barely can see what the game is truly about because its hushed reverence and respect is being tethered with marketers who wish to turn it into a veritable mud wrestling match of hoots and hollers.

First and foremost golf is a gentlemanly pursuit that can be played voraciously but with an element of respect, honor for the game, proper decorum it also can pit some unlikely pairings. Yet today, golfers looking to improve themselves are assaulted with brazen ad copy of adding distance from the tee as if theyre being sold prescriptions for sexual dysfunction. Yet when gleamed over with a careful eye it speaks volumes of the next big error that young golfers make.

The game is not perfected through quaint stroke-saving inventions or even muscular enhancement but with the most finite maneuvers, the most careful subtlety, a veritable tango between guile and technical expertise. The slippery slope of the game that appears to be lost to many is the simple fact that each stroke counts the same whether it is a booming awe-inspiring 300-yard drive or the nerve rattling 3 foot putt to close out par.

Golf is a game of closers and deal makers, all the raucous bellowing, long-ball shots off the tee still need to be closed-off with that delicate twisting putt with Coltrane-cool ice water running through the veins, when you absolutely, positively have to get the deal. The brilliance of the game is that the success of the round may be seen as simply turning a few up and downs in 2, hitting greens in regulation or other like changes. It is the subtleties of knowing the game, the little differences between closing or falling short. Learn the lesson well that every action counts the same it all matters and thus every action causes further reaction, ensuring their importance in the overall divine perspective of your game/life. There is divinity in every action, so what you do, do it with all that you have and commit.

Practically consider that that while in fact distance off the tee can be desirable you must first start your practical training on the green, putting from a close distance and working on your short game, over and over. To perfect your game, re-embrace the simplicity of the putting green become comfortable and intently focused upon the perfect stroke of dropping 3-5 foot putt after putt. But this isnt just putting is it?

Learn to be a closer.

Develop an impenetrable skin with the world as your prospect. Put yourself in the position of being a success with solid, accountable work habits. Establish relationship ties, educate yourself on your market and frame the deal in an irresistible and simple manner to match your clients needs. Tactically you are always ready to close the deal. You want this, you taste this deeper in your heart than anything else you can dream of as you thirst for opportunity. Today's world is full of posers, wannabees who never were. Be the one, the shit, the one they hand the laser-pen to in the board meeting when they HAVE to close. Be the one everyone turns to when the shit gets wild, be THE ONE. Google up your name and it reads, the ultimate ~ closer. Pressure is what everyone else feels as you roll into the game because they know you're the deal-maker.

All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us they cant get away this time. General Lewis Chesty Puller, USMC

Now you feel why you never miss 3-5 footers? As the immortal Ben Hogan would say, The woods are full of long drivers. But it goes beyond the club doesn't it now? The course becomes life and so life becomes the course. We all make mistakes, count on it, just learn to get up off that canvas. Yet learn to accept your errors with patience and a resolve to change them learn from the mistakes and the game unfurls through patience. Some of life's greatest adventures start with errors, fear nothing, fear not failure but failure to go boldly. Accept challenges, dine on them. I thirst for challenges. Give me something I'm bad at and come back a week, a month or even a year and you wont believe how Ill master it. Challenges beget victory through the hard work of the journey.

Embrace not simply from the technical perspective of dropping putts but from developing the powerful respect that even the most finite of details plays a role in developing the total package, the complete golfer, the complete closer. Incredibly as many golfers fail to sink that 4-foot putt or elect to take gimmees they don't see the exasperating similarity between this and life's pursuits.

There are no gimmees in life just as the only thing that is predictable is unpredictability. The chaos of unexpected events must be expected and thus you become at ease with them. Expect the unexpected and wait for your opportunity to flourish.

Be the closer!

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