Personal Essay: Competitive Golf

For years, golf has been one of the oldest and most traditional sports. As the equipment and golf courses have changed, the etiquette and rules have not. In golf, etiquette has been a major part of the game. Staying quiet on the course and repairing divots are a few examples of proper formality. Common rules include teeing the ball between the tee markers and marking your ball on the green. Along with these guidelines, there are rules that are controversial and seem unfair to golfers.

I did not care much about golf before I decided to come to United States, so my score was not good enough for competing. Although I had several achievements during my freshman year, I knew that my scores, usually ranging around 100, were average for my age and not remarkable. After this first season in Tallulah Falls School, I found a new determination for the sport. I practiced hard during the next summer and prepared for my sophomore year. The golf course had become my second home. When the sophomore season started, I was ready to improve my golf skills and also make some great friends. I started loving this sport with my fantastic teammates, who improved a lot-some from knowing nothing about golf to finishing eighteen holes in a match. Refusing to be slack at practices, our team worked hard to continue our path of improvement-even the harshest of weather would not stop our passionate practices. I remember once, right after the snow, we played the next day. Although the snow had melted by the

Regardless of what other pro athletes view on the game are, golf is a very competitive and highly paid sport. Tournaments are held at different times of the year in different parts of the world by hundreds of pro golfers. These tournaments can have prize money of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For years, golf has been one of the oldest and most traditional sports. As the equipment and golf courses have changed, the etiquette and rules have not. In golf, etiquette has been a major part of the game. Staying quiet on the course and repairing divots are a few examples of proper formality. Common rules include teeing the ball between the tee markers and marking your ball on the green. Along with these guidelines, there are rules that are controversial and seem unfair to golfers.

Imagine the sun bursting through the trees for the first time of the new day, the smell of freshly cut grass still potent to your nose as you tee the ball up for a round of golf in the cool mist of a spring morning. "That is what brings you back every time, the smell of the air, the coolness of the whether and the beautiful surroundings that make every shot enjoyable." (Suess, PI) This is the game of golf in its finest and most exquisite time to many people and many people it has touched in its long history. Golf is a lifestyle and not just games to people that are avid in playing. The game of golf has a history that is rich in technological advances and personal accomplishments, which through time has shown to shape

As I ran up and down the tee line, I saw my father slamming the ground with a golf club. I could not understand why he was always so angry when practicing. I stopped running and watched him closely, studying his body as he elegantly whipped the club through the air. Sweat was dripping from his nose, his shirt soaked completely through. I was six years old and in awe of this man. At home he was just dad, but on the golf course, he was someone else. He was an athlete. I watched him for hours that day, and I would watch him for years to come as he practiced, trying to find the perfect swing.

Over the last two years of my High School education, I found the extracurricular activities I fit in the most. I am part of Student Council, National Honor Society and a member of the tennis team. They all have molded me to be the best. However, I feel like tennis has impacted me the most. It’s a sport that has taught me so much, from being physically fit, to mentally prepared for any outcome. I learned that a game it’s not about winning or losing, but about how it’s played, and what it took to get there. Being in a team is about contributing others, and learning from them. It’s about accepting that we all make mistakes, and only practice can reduce the times we make them. So many loses and few victories, but I always preferred to sheer my

Freshman golf ended miserably, but I wasn’t even close to giving up. In Arkansas golf, high school isn’t a big deal like in Football and Basketball. It’s the tournaments held by the Arkansas State golf Association that are most respected. So my golfing year wasn’t really over, it had actually just begun. So I began to practice more, and focus solely on golf. It seemed the harder I practiced, the worse I got. I was trying too hard, and playing badly in tournaments. It was extremely heartbreaking. This was the only think that I had complete confidence in and I couldn’t

One of my primary interests is the formation of communities, especially those involving competitive environments, and even further should that competitive environment involve teamwork. Involvement in communities like them seem a fair pastime, and an effective device for the improvement of one's personality. American soccer and baseball were the two sports with which I was most involved throughout my youth, and it's through that participation I found the aforementioned to be true, and found too some friends I Imagine I'll cherish for the remainder of my life. Though sports such as

If I never joined the basketball team I don't know if I would have ever been able to find friends to express myself with. You can learn a lot from friends at a young age, I found out we had more in common than just basketball. Joining the organized sport just opened doors to numerous possibilities for me. I decided to get more involved with other organized activites such as

A matter of opinion has separated a variety of sports enthusiasts apart, due to the ongoing debate of whether golf is a sport or simply a skill. Famed golfer Arnold Palmer declared, “Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening – and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented. (ThinkQuest.com)” These words state what every athlete experiences and feels when he/she is turning a double play, making the game winning three point shot, or throwing a hail mary pass for a touchdown. Golfers are athletes too, they train for that big moment just like any other athlete, but

Through this experience I learned to keep calm in situations that may not be the best to be in. But I also learned that no matter what the stakes are that your are playing under, you should always try your best to stay positive and play your best. Meaning sometimes you will not do your best and you need to learn to get through those tough times. This experience showed me how to deal with future sports events, and just stressful situations in general. But overall, I not only gained a new friend, but I also obtained a new life skill for my golfing

Our town is notable for having several interesting golf courses. For those residents whose interests lie in other pursuits, those courses are a waste of large quantities of otherwise useful space that could be better used to construct another mall or store. For the golf enthusiasts among us, however, the preponderance of courses is a delightful benefit of living in this otherwise uninteresting locale, where the only saving grace is the plentiful supply of interesting people.

Along with his love for the game of golf, my dad also passed down his competitiveness to me. The game of golf stirs up more competition than most

Many people take up Golf thinking that it is easy, after all, how hard can it be to hit a little white ball with a stick? This thinking evaporates the first time they step onto a driving range and attempt to hit that little white ball. Golf is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. My experience with golf began in May of 2005 when friends came to stay with us; my wife informed me that I would have to take Roy, her friend’s husband Golfing. I had not been to a driving range (since I was in my teens) and I had never played golf on a course before. It was quite an experience; the weather was cold, rainy and nasty the three times we played while they where here, the game hooked me badly, even with the bad shots and the nasty weather.