Personal Narrative: The Golf Course

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

“Oh no, please don’t tell me this is happening. Mom, can I just skip this tournament?” I pleaded, “There is absolutely no hope for me.” Being the dramatic person I am, I lamented the imminent end of my tennis career. I went into the tournament with an expectation of failure. I started the match by accidentally whacking the ball over the fence, tripping on my own feet rushing to end the point. The little confidence I had when going into the match dissipated within a few minutes. I continued the match pondering how to angle my racket to put spin on the ball. Every time I failed, I blamed it on the high skill level of my opponent. Unsurprisingly, I lost in an hour. When looking back on that match, I realized that it could have gone differently had I not brought myself down before. My lack of

A few years ago I was training to be professional tennis player at one of India’s top tennis academies. I had been playing tennis only for ten months when my tennis coach suggested I participate in the upcoming national level fastest serve tennis tournament. There was a fear in me, a fear of facing the more skilled, experienced, and accomplished competition, yet my mind wanted to overcome that fear and trust my coach and ten months of training. My coach had immense faith in my abilities to perform well, but being the underdog, I lacked the confidence to compete alongside top ranked players. As the tournament date grew closer, I found myself battling between two paths - give in to my fear and surrender any chance of winning, or escape my comfort

When I first came to Lake Highland in seventh grade my parents wanted me to be on a team to get to know people and the only sport I knew was golf. I came to the tryouts with no experience of tournaments, hammy down clubs from my sister, and not appropriate golf attire. I tried very hard for the team, but I did I didn't have the skills to make it on. It was very devastating for me because I have never been turned down before, but I knew that I had to change. After this failure I decided that I should try harder in golf. I never did take the sport seriously and barely practiced, but after being turned down I decided to step up my game. I started to practice harder and more often by my own choice. I also started to play in tournaments, which I

A place can be any position or point with space around. A corner, a site on the internet, McDonalds, or even if you’re lost in the woods you're still in a place because of the space that’s around. A place such as The Mexican Restaurant, where my parents go on special occasions or when I talked to a friend at The Baseball field about certain point of every aspect of the game we play, or even when My family was so traumatized when our dad went out onto the ocean when the waves we crashing in. He tells us he’ll be fine so he heads out on the sand and starts walking the opposite direction of us, the waves came in and crashed into the feet of the cliff. We thought he was gone but he came back and said the waves almost got him but he found a crack

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

Once, a very long time ago, Vincent Van Gogh was said to have drunk yellow paint, hoping to gain happiness. Three years ago, I joined my school’s golf team for the same reason. I found myself isolated at school, realizing that I was pushing school work over my social life during my sophomore year. It was when I desperately struggled to surround myself with positivity that I found myself at the Santa Teresa Golf Course. The first few practices at a sport I had never touched was more upsetting than enjoyable. Unexpectedly, golf requires a mentality where the confidence to overcome obstacles is essential to successive progression in the sport. Being compared to my older sister at home, and then struggling to fit in at school, made self-doubt a

Thankfully, an older man who was warming up before his game saw me struggling. He came up to me and asked me if I wanted a few pointers. Slightly shocked, I accepted his offer. Over from the man’s golf cart, his partner yelled at him to hurry up and stop wasting time. However, the man signaled his partner to wait. He said to me, “Well first, your feet aren’t quite lined up with the ball.” I adjusted my feet to his liking. “Next, keep your left arm straight all the way throughout your swing. Lastly, just keep your eye on the ball. You’re looking up, and you aren’t hitting the ball in the right spot.” I lined up my feet, took my arms back, focused my eyes on the ball, and “POCK!” I looked up to see my ball soaring through the air and almost hitting the fence 100 yards away! I looked over at the kind gentleman, smiling. He smiled and raised his eyebrows. “Let’s see if you can do that again.” I did exactly what he told me to do, and sure enough, the ball soared. We practiced for

We’re already so close-knit, and it’s so much fun to spend time with the girls. We’ve already had a few tournaments, and whether a round was good or bad, everyone supports each other and knows that what to work on for the next round. I feel so indebted to God because he put so many extraordinary girls on my team. We are currently preparing for Jamborees with other teams in our conference, and it’s exciting because I get to go to amazing golf courses with some of my best friends and have an amazing time playing golf. Overall, golf has had such a wonderful impact on my life. From the close relationships with the girls, to improving my own game, I’ve become so much closer to God through the whole experience. I’m so excited to see what God has in store for me and my team the rest of this season and Senior

He says, “Don’t worry about anything, just trust in the work you’ve put in and go compete.” These dark thoughts of failure and doubt are now replaced with much warmer memories. I begin to reminisce about the years of long hours practicing and grinding in order to get to this moment. I think about all the time that I’ve spent with my friends that were on the same mission that I was as we played the game we loved from the time the sun popped up in the east and fell down over the horizon in the west. I am much more calm now as I take the tee and our round begins. I look to my fellow competitors and I see many of the same mistakes that I make. This gives me comfort in knowing that even though they do have a prestigious past, the golf ball doesn’t know

After two patient years of golfing, the weather was perfect to play with. As I look over the lush green grass, my father besides me casted a shadow over me. The freshly cut grass, reminded me of possibly getting a hole in one. As I start to walk on the pathway towards hole one, I start to mentally prepare myself. “I can do it. Play confidently and play to win,” as I mumble to myself. It’s just important to be physically prepared as mentally. My dad, jokingly says, “I’ll give you a ‘gazillion’ dollars if you land a hole-in-one.” Well my dad, better get that “gazillion” dollars ready, because he is in for a surprise.

All my life I have been very devoted to the sports of which I participate. Baseball and golf have been a huge part of my childhood and it has always been in that order. Baseball always took precedence over golf. Golf was just a hobby and when it came down to it, baseball was going to be more a part of me than golf. But recently my heart has shifted and the level of precedence in my mind has switched over to golf, and being very involved in the baseball team with my high school, it was time to make a very difficult decision with countless ramifications.

In golf, as in life, you have to stay positive and focused so that you can make good decisions and work around your mistakes. There are obstacles in golf: bunkers, water hazards, bad shots, missed putts and lost balls. Because of this, golf has taught me patience and discipline, in a way that I could not have learned in a school

Our car rolled and bounced along the grey and dusty gravel road that reeked of gasoline and exhaust. Finally, we came to the entrance of the patchy green fields to start my first practice. I soon learned that there would be no need to be nervous as we all worked hard on this team and all became friends and were very serious about the sport. Every week we attended the five hours of practice and worked our butts off every practice. Finally, It became time to talk about our first games together that were that weekend. Before practice started coach pulled us aside and talked to us about the tourney. We were excited and prepared, but I think all of us were a little nervous. When we got to the tournament we warmed up for our game and and did some quick warm up drills. The game started and my chest was pounding out of my chest thumping so hard I could feel every beat. FWEEE! The whistle sounded and our team advanced on the field passing and running around. The ball was passed to me and I panicked and passed it right back. I realized that I needed to calm down so took a little break on the bench and settled down and got back out on the

Leading up to state championships my junior year I dreamed of standing atop the podium, and validating my years of hard work. The first day of competitions, I felt the nerves kick in before my banked slalom race. Riding on the chair lift and looking at the flags, jumps, and turns, my stomach dropped. Sitting on the lift I pictured two outcomes, one where I had the perfect run.The other where I stumbled the down the course, hardly making it across the finish line. At the top of the course I kept playing the worst outcome over and