Get Out of Your Own Way – Chapter 4, Part 2.

Chapter 4 – Mind Over Golf

A Failing Paradigm?

Given the success of science in developing technologies, the role that those technologies play in modern life, and the platform given to scientists in academia and the media, it shouldn’t be a surprise that acceptance of the material model is prevalent, almost universal.

It is understandable then, that the world of golf, particularly golf instruction, is also reluctant to venture outside the materialist paradigm. Apart from motor racing, likely no other sport has been changed by science and technology in the way that golf has been.

Over the past 70 years or so, billions of dollars have been invested in research, manufacturing and marketing of golf equipment, swing analysis, training and practice aids, and health and fitness products for golfers.

Despite this investment, the average handicap remains stuck stubbornly around the 16 mark. Participation levels in established golf markets are static if not falling. Golfers are not really improving, and they don’t seem to be enjoying the game much more, either.
Could the frustration and dissatisfaction that so many golfers experience stem from a misunderstanding more significant than simple failure to grasp the physics and biomechanics of the game?

Could it be that the struggles facing golfers – and those facing wider society – have their roots in a failing and outdated idea about the fundamental nature of reality?

Let’s see if we can frame the issue in a way to make it relevant.

The ultimate reality of the universe is what it is regardless of our models of or theories about it.

And for most people, a debate about the subject seems pointless, academic. It doesn’t seem to have an impact on the day to day activity of earning a living, raising a family and enjoying limited free time and hobbies.

We just want to live our lives, enjoy our golf, and not waste time thinking about an abstract question that our culture regards as settled and has taken for granted.

But, as questions regarding the legitimacy of the materialist paradigm have become more frequent in recent years, (ironically due in part to advancements in the field of quantum mechanics) it has become increasingly apparent that the misguided way most people understand the world – and therefore themselves to be – is a major reason for their dissatisfaction with their lives.

And with their frustrations with the game of golf.

This misunderstanding is the reason for the exploitation and degradation of our environment. And for the widespread suspicion and animosity felt among individuals, societies, races, and nations.

It is the primary cause of the inequality, division and conflict unfolding in the world today.

And for the internal division and mental conflict many golfers experience, as described in the opening paragraphs of this book.

If you think the world around you is limited and finite, and you are separate from it and from others, the pressure is on to grab as much stuff as you can before somebody else gets there first and leaves you without.

This belief is the basis of our economic and political models.

If you believe yourself to be limited and finite, then the clock is ticking. The pressure is on to satisfy your needs and desires. To become something or someone, to make your mark, to leave a legacy before you disappear back into the primordial soup of particles and waves of energy from which you emerged.

This is the recipe for happiness and fulfilment promoted by our education systems and the media.

These unwritten, largely unexamined beliefs provide the backdrop to modern life. They underpin our values as societies, and from these values we attempt to derive meaning in our personal lives.

No wonder so many people feel stressed and under pressure. No wonder happiness and wellbeing are elusive for so many.

We turn to games such as golf to try to find relief from the struggles of the working week. But then we find that we are playing the game according to the same rules as we have imposed on ourselves in the other areas of life.

No wonder seems hard to enjoy golf sometimes.

Why Does Golf Matter?

Compared to the issues facing wider society, disappointment in a personal quest to get a small white ball into a hole in the ground could be seen as a minor irritation.

But the frustration and lack of satisfaction felt by many golfers could also be a cue to look more closely at our lives as a whole.

Perhaps those feelings point to this deeper misunderstanding about the ultimate nature of the human experience. And perhaps they offer an opportunity to learn something important beyond the immediate task of finding the fairways and greens and holing more putts.

Would it not make the expenditure of all that time, and effort, and money more worthwhile if our quest to play better golf taught us something valuable about ourselves and our fellow golfers?

Something that helped make our whole life experience richer, happier, and more fulfilling?

And helped us play better and enjoy the game more as well?

For as long as we seek peace and happiness in the material world around us, the best we can hope for are brief moments of relief from a perpetual struggle.

Despite advances in club and ball technology, improved agronomy, and more information and data about how we interact with both club and ball, playing to your potential isn’t becoming easier for the average golfer.

It doesn’t seem to be any more satisfying or fulfilling than it was sixty years ago.

Maybe it isn’t the game of golf that needs to change. Maybe as suggested in previous chapters, it’s our beliefs about reality, about how to live, and about ourselves, that are the cause of the problems golf seems to be struggling with.

Maybe what’s required is more fundamental than a simplification of the rulebook, a reassessment of the technology, and yet another marketing strategy aimed at ‘growing the game’?

Over the last couple of centuries there have been many examples where a change in a fundamental belief about how the world really is has changed the course of human history.

The realisation that the earth was round, not flat, was one such occurrence. The discovery that the earth moved around the sun, not vice versa, was another.

In both these cases, a belief that had served the evolution of humanity up to a point became a shackle by which it was held back and prevented from evolving further.

Gradually, as the new thinking became more widely accepted, the old models were replaced by new, more accurate ones. That hundreds of years passed before these truths were completely accepted gives you some idea of how deeply the old paradigms were woven into the psyches of the people and into the workings of societies.

The speed with which new ideas can now be propagated and shared gives hope that overcoming the misunderstanding of the materialist paradigm will happen more quickly than the erroneous beliefs were overcome in the two examples given above.

It is a model that served a purpose, but whose usefulness has long since passed.

For the sake of golf and the people who love the game, and for the sake of humanity as a whole, I hope that this is the case.

An alternative model of reality is available. It overcomes all the failings of the materialist paradigm and offers hope for a better way of living and playing.

It isn’t new. It has been around for thousands of years and is the foundation of all the major philosophies, religions and spiritual traditions.

This is the idea we will be exploring in the rest of the book.