Where Do You Want to Play This Summer?
The June 2007 issue of Golf Digest posed a question to readers - where do you want to play golf this summer? - and offered a meaningful cash prize for coming up with what the editors, in their infinite and marketable wisdom, consider to be the best answer. Like most of us, I can conjure up any number of wonderful golfing venues. But the question prompted a different and far less marketable exploration for me - the state of being I want to be in this summer when I play:
I want to play golf in a state of mind where I can feel the wind on my cheek, hear the birds overhead and remember my partners’ names.
I want to play where the course forces me to stretch - my legs, my skills, my imagination - so that golf and learning walk the same fairway.
I want to play where the vision of the architect isn’t compromised. I want to play without cartpaths and rooflines in my eyes.
I want to play golf where spin rates and launch angles have no importance. I want to play a game in which to hit it farther I see farther.
I want to play where I can have a match against my biggest fears - a respectful match with worthy adversaries, not a grudge game with my own ego.
I want to play golf in a place where there are like minds. With friends, old and newly met, who value the quality of the adventure more than the sum of the shots.
I want to play golf where I can just play, and have that be game enough.
So here’s an idea: let’s have a Shivas Irons’ ‘contest’ this summer. Describe the state of being (and doing) you’d like to explore in golf, whether it’s Nebraska or nirvana, and keep it to 200 words or less. We’ll publish the interesting, the insightful and the downright crazy by the end of August. You can email your thoughts to hilton@shivas.org.