Good Judgement
Good Judgement
Greetings Golfers,
The other day while listening to a radio show in my car … the “host” reminisced about playing the jukebox when he was in college. He proudly said that he always played a certain song because it was 6 minutes long and that way he got his money’s worth.
Wow.
Talk about quantifying everything. So quality doesn’t matter … all that matters is quantity.
When I used to play songs on a jukebox … I actually chose the songs I liked … and ones that seemed to make sense for the situation. If the length of the song was a factor … it was a tiny factor.
Ok … was quantity a factor in other things during those times. Yeah. I was usually shooting pool and drinking beer. I wasn’t fussy about the beer … I chose quantity. I was in college … I didn’t have any money!
But … music? Never. That represented my soul.
It seems that quantifying too often overrides judgement.
Numbers should be a factor in making decisions … but not the only factor.
However … judgement … puts the decision maker at risk. Obviously not every decision is perfect or even works out. There is always risk involved. And … totally relying on numbers is a safe way to absolve responsibility if things don’t work out.
But if that’s how to run things … why even have decision makers? Sounds to me like robots could do the job.
So … you’re a 150 yards from the pin … and for you that’s a 7 iron. But … what if it’s windy? What if you’re tired? What if the pin is at the front of the green and there’s a sharp drop-off in front of the green? Obviously there are a lot of factors.
Do you only choose a golf ball because it goes far? … but you don’t have any feel with it around the green?
When a certain local business magazine writes about golf … at the end of each article is a list of golf courses with the highest slope numbers. Does that mean those are the best golf courses? That’s the only factor?
Do you like spicy food? Is the spiciest food the best food? What if I poured a whole bottle of spice on it … now is it better?
Doesn’t this deny common-sense?
More is not always better. Sometimes less is more. The art to anything is getting things right.
Oh … maybe the longest song is the best song. How about an hour long song of just annoying noise?
Back to our radio host. I’ve always found him boring. Even annoying. He’s arrogant … though he talks in a moderated radio voice … and tries to act like he’s the reasonable one … and everyone else is not on his correct wavelength. But to me … he’s always been a robot dressed-up in an Ivy League resume and a “smooth” radio voice.
Of course he would choose a long song instead of good one … good judgement involves using your soul.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com