The Most Important Shot: A Maxim For Golf And Life
“The most important shot in golf is the next one.” — Ben Hogan
The 10th hole was a downhill par-5 with a generous fairway and out-of-bounds on the right side. Being a longer hitter, I was licking my chops at the possibility of gaining not only one shot on the field, but maybe even two with a “big bird.” After a mediocre front nine, I needed something to turn this day around, and #10 promised just that.
This was one of the few professional tournaments where both my parents were able to watch, not only that, it was also taking place in my home state of Kansas. The set and setting added on joy mingled with heightened anticipation alongside ample expectation. More than anything, I wanted to perform at the level I knew I was capable of. I wanted to show my family and all the other competitors what type of golfer I really was. And I wanted to prove to myself I was capable of the level I knew I could reach but hadn't realized up to that point.
Beyond mere desire, there were real dollars at play. Entry fees aren't cheap, and if I was going to make my money count I needed at least a top-10 or a top-15 finish. Of course winning is always best, but losing, especially with that amount of money already as a sunk cost... that is a hurt you want to avoid at all costs.
These are a sampling of the swirling thoughts and emotions, murmuring in the background of each hole that day. While I was hanging tough, the round had not gone according to plan... and the 10th hole would only follow suit.
After piping a drive right down the middle, I was in an absolutely perfect spot to take advantage of this short par-5. After calculating the yardage and other factors affecting my approach, I stepped up to the ball with a six-iron in hand. The expectation was a shot that left me 15-20 ft. for eagle. The stage was set.
The Chasm
Sometimes in life, time seems to move in slow motion. In these times the difference between expectation and reality appear to be such a vast chasm that we almost can't help but pause the ticking of the clock in amazement, wonder, and awe-filled dread.
With my desire to succeed being so strong, I made the common error of trying to force the shot instead of letting it happen. My weight shifted forward with this instinct, coming up on my toes at impact and bringing my body, and inevitably the club, too close to the ball for solid impact. At contact, I knew the result was going to be woefully different than planned. The feeling of the ball impacting the hosel of the club and careening 45-degrees to the right is one of the worst there is in the game of golf.
That chasm between the expectation of an eagle-putt and the reality of a shanked 6-iron out-of-bounds, is as wide of a chasm as any sane competitor can take without instantaneously crumbling into a sobbing ball of disappointment and anger. It was a time-altering blow that set the stage for what was next... having to hit the same shot over again.
As Hogan aptly said: in golf, the most important shot is always the next one. When that shot is filled with fear, embarrassment, shame, and anger, a 6-iron from the middle of the fairway becomes one of scariest shots to face.
This poignant maxim is one I've found to apply beyond the links in the broader realm of life.
What We Can Control
In golf there are very few things under your control. When I was competing for a living, I narrowed in these factors to three main variables: confidence, preparation, and decision-making. Outside of those three things (all residing within the mind), there is hardly anything we can control. In order to be fully prepared for the next shot, we must set aside what just happened on the front nine, the last hole, and even on the last swing. We must let go of the past because we no longer have control over influencing what has happened. We can only influence what is about to happen, and the best way to do that is by fully focusing on the task at hand.
If we fail to move past what has happened on the shot before or the hole before, our decision-making often becomes impaired. Our natural tendency after hitting a bad shot is to try and pull off the “hero-shot” in order to make up for our mistake. This inevitably leads to more mistakes and a worse overall outcome than if we had simply taken our medicine and played the practical shot for recovering.
Ultimately, our confidence is the most difficult of the three to control. After hitting a bad shot, our most recent memory is a result we don't like and don't want to reproduce. Even though we know we are capable of hitting a better shot, the recency bias we all experience naturally shades our outlook in a slightly negative light. Manufacturing confidence, especially when we don't feel it, is a tall order. That order becomes even taller when the most recent shot was a cold-shank OB from the middle of the fairway...
In life, we cannot control what happened last year, last month, last week, or even in the last hour. We can control what we are about to do, or what we are doing in light of last year/month/week/hour. We see this in every super-hero movie or action film we watch: there are inevitably mistakes, failures, and unplanned setbacks that will disrupt the expectations and goals of the hero. If that hero lingers on the past events too long, it leads to near-fatal catastrophe. Only in accepting what has happened and focusing on what they can control—their outlook, approach, and resulting actions—will they become the hero we all long for them to be.
So too with you and me.
Why We Don't Move On
The problem is, you and I are human. We're not “heroes.” We're average joe-blows. We're not capable of supernatural shifts like moving on.
Being human means we will struggle with moving on from the past. We will often let past events dictate our current reality and our future actions. We allow the emotions that flow from failure, disappointment, loss, and pain to coarse through our veins and feed the heart-throb of pessimism and cynicism. This begins with our outlook first on ourself and then moves out towards others from there.
We don't move on because it feels good to wallow in self-pity. We don't move on because we don't feel worthy of any results other than the failures we have produced and the failure we are. We don't move on because most everyone around us participates in the socially-affirmed act of self-deprecation. We don't move on because our anger is intoxicating and it always cries out for more. We don't move on because we can't... or so it seems.
But, by not moving on we keep repeating the same patterns. We further entrench in the past results and produce future outcomes that mirror them. We become self-fulfilling prophecies of the place we've already been.
In golf, a bad shot can easily turn into a bad hole. And that bad hole can easily turn into several. And after several bad holes, the easiest thing to do is just throw in the towel and waste away the rest of the round because what's the point anyway?
This self-fulfilling prophecy is a powerful construct every golfer has experienced, and every human has experienced it in some way too. It feels insurmountable, un-overcome-able. It feels inevitable. But it's not. It is a spell that can be broken and it is broken by understanding that... the most important shot is the next one.
How To Live This Out
In golf and life, living this out takes practice. The only way we can overcome this human tendency is by putting in the reps. By falling down and picking ourselves back up, time and time again. These lessons are hard-earned through failing. Failures can either be repeated or learned from, and oftentimes they are both. But the more we learn from them the less we will repeat them.
The keys to living out this maxim are:
Intentionality — bringing conscious choice to our actions in place of following our instinctual desires or feelings
Grace — showing ourselves kindness and forgiveness for the mistakes we made, knowing that the future will be different
Focus — keeping our gaze fixed on the task at hand and the direction we are pursuing, refusing to look back or dwell on where we've been
Reminders — preaching this truth to ourselves over and over again, because we inevitably forget
Patience — trusting the process of practice, knowing that growth is never felt in the moment but those moments add up to considerable progress in the long-run
Persistence — it will never not take effort, it will always require work which is why we must remain persistent in our practice of it
The ultimate elixir when it comes to keeping our focus on the next shot is understanding the underlying foundation of identity. When our identity is found in what we do instead of who we are, this will be a battle we never win. When we choose to place our identity in who we are, as human-beings—both one of a collective while individually unique, made in God's image while sharing in the collective fall of humanity, having both intrinsic value while also not being the center of the universe—when we choose to find our identity in these realities then what we do for work or the titles we acquire matter less because they no longer define our worth and value. This gives us the freedom to step into that next shot with confidence, knowing we are prepared to hit it well.
That second 6-iron from the fairway on #10 might have been the shot I'm most proud of from my professional career. The shame and embarrassment-induced fear I felt standing over that ball for a second time in 60 seconds, after cold-shanking my first swing out-of-bounds, was coming from the core of who I thought I was - from the false identity of being a “professional golfer.” Because of the training and focus I had gained through repetition and discipline, I was able to hit a respectable shot finding the middle of the green, some 40 ft. away.
But imagine if I had my identity rooted in the deep reality of who I am as a human being. Imagine if I hadn't placed so much of my worth in my performance on the golf course. Imagine how different that feeling would be, and how much better that next shot could have been (let alone the rest of that round).
No, this is not a story of myself as the hero. It is the story of myself as the human, sharing in the experience of all. This is why Ben Hogan, a man who lived in a different era and who's life contained experiences completely different than my own, this is why he and I can both say with confidence that: the most important shot in golf is the next one... and so too in life.
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