Present and future competition.

Meet Ben:

By most standards, Ben is your average 14-year-old and does what your typical 14-year-old would do (I’d provide examples, but it’s been a while since I was 14 and have no clue what the kids are up to these days..).  He’s not yet in high school, but has been golfing for about 11 years.

Ben can school me on the course and so provides me with a good generality of the type of young golfers coming up in our country today.  On a good day, he can shoot par on some of the tougher tracks around town and is still 5′ tall.  In this photo, he just hit a successful sand save to within 3 feet of the cup as if there was never a question about the outcome.  He plays in tournaments regularly and is going to go with his father down to Arizona to train this winter.

Ben is a good example of deliberate practice.  He has a lot of the right doors open for him: gets lessons with great coaches, has a father who is a wonderful golfer, and he enjoys practicing as much as playing.  Ben has a solid chance of creating a great golfing career for himself if he continues to enjoy the game and sticks to it.

For me, it’s a game of catch-up, which I actually quite enjoy.  A year ago Ben was killing me on the putting green as that was the only place that I could “play” at the time.  Now he’s bringing it on the regular course, but we are pretty even on the putting green.  Next year I hope to be swinging on all cylinders and able to keep up with anyone from 14-95 years of age.  There are amazing golfers out there who are just as dedicated as I am and knowing this is just the inspiration I need to keep the train rolling.