(Age, continued)
A key element of golf is imagining first, then doing as imagined and experiencing the results, as imagined.
Let’s say you’re 150 yards from the pin, in the short grass, and the terrain elevates you about ten feet above the pin. In perfect conditions you might hit a nine or eight iron. But conditions are windy. You are hitting your shot into a steady 30 mph wind. So, after some mental calculations involving wind, necessary flight trajectory, location of the pin, stance, swing and your own ability which includes the proper wrist action for backspin caused by the grooved clubs, you imagine the contact with the ball before you swing, that solid feel of contact when you get the ball right in the center of the club so that by the time the club digs a divot in the dirt, the stroke has done its work and the rest of your swing is like old karma that has already launched inevitability. You imagine seeing the ball in the air, hanging up into the wind for a long time like a little moon kite. So, instead of a nine iron on a clear day when you can see forever, you take the five iron, maybe even the four*, and you address the ball. You look down at the ball on the ground, then you look up at the target. Down at the ball, up at the target. Your body is registering the feel of what will happen, before it happens. Somehow, this all internalizes into the core of the body as a computation of physics, and the body feels the shot. The action is first felt in stillness, felt as an imagined experience that gets reinforced by glancing at the target, then holding that image in the mind while looking away from the target and at the ball. Over and over again, just looking at the target and imagining the action, before the action. In your mind you watch the flight of the ball, before it takes flight. It’s a bit like, so let it be written in the air, so let it be done.
This is why businessmen like golf. Making deals happen as imagined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxf1IFgPH5s
* as a baseline, the lower the iron number the farther the shot, and a one number difference is about ten yards on a level surface, generally speaking. Distance from pin can be judged by the vegetation. Usually a prominent little bush on the sideline is planted 150 yards away, but these days rich folks use electronic rangefinders.
"Not even God can hit a 1 iron." - Lee Travino