Priorities

Greetings Golfers,

Sometimes these blogs are just me thinking out loud … no agenda … almost stream of consciousness.

So today, I'm wrestling with 5 things:

-A guy turning blind and becomes a 5 hdc player

-The disconcerting coverage of the Masters

-Cam Smith hitting into the water on #12

-Pitcher being yanked while pitching a perfect game

-A girl I just interviewed does not want to be a server at the restaurant where she’s a hostess

Just looking at that lineup … it seems to me what they share is understanding or not understanding priorities.

Cameron Smith could not hit it in the water on #12. He’d just birdied #11 and was back in it. He had to hit it long left. That was not the time to be aggressive. He couldn’t hand Sheffler the tournament right there (which he did). No sense of priorities.

The CBS coverage of the Masters. Wow. What was going on? It was like the typical weekend coverage of weekly Tour Events. Unfocused … scattered … showing meaningless putts … goofy camera shots of following the ball in the air - not in perspective of the hole … just a picture of a ball flying in the air … ????? No sense of priorities.

Wednesday, LA Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw had a perfect game going against the Twins. He only had to get 6 more outs. He’d only thrown 80 pitches. The Dodger Manager yanked him. Wow. In my youth, the players would have revolted and beaten the manager to a pulp. This move was the opposite of respect. This was more of that idiotic managing by the numbers. No sense of priorities.

Heard a story the other day about a guy who got really into golf as he was going blind. He set-up chipping targets in his house. Later, when totally blind, he started playing in national blind tournaments. He got down to a 5 handicap. That’s having priorities and fighting to achieve.

Last one. Just interviewed a girl who’s working as a hostess at a restaurant. She said she didn’t want to be a server there because the people are so impatient and demanding. I get it. These people have no priorities. They “want it all”. Ugh. So … anything not perfect gets their nastiness going. They think that being demanding is like the blind guy pushing himself to be a good golfer. 

They couldn’t have it more wrong. The blind guy is making choices - prioritizing - to get to where he wants to go. Those diners … are just demanding everything. Because to them … there are no priorities … EVERYTHING is a priority.

The Masters coverage was ridiculous because they tried to cover too much. Most of that stuff was not a priority. 

Kershaw pitching a perfect game should be a priority. 

It seems to me that some people think that equality means that everyone has everything. And that if everyone can’t have something (a perfect game) then it doesn’t matter.

This is very confused thinking. And it will not make life better for anyone. It just causes extreme anger and pettiness and narcissism and failure. 

Common sense and logic need to make a comeback. Thinking is a good thing. Over reliance on stats and systems and procedures … turns people into robots.

And sucks the life out of life.

Give me the blind guy over that Dodger manager any day.

Cheers!

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com