What Golf Has Taught Me About Being Present

In January 2019, I decided to take up golf. Partly, I wanted a new challenge. But I was also looking for something that would get me outside, away from screens and give my mind somewhere else to be.

Golf turned out to be rather good at that. And, several years later, I'm still playing.

It's difficult to play golf anywhere but in the present

One of the things I love about golf is the concentration it demands. When you're standing over a ball, thinking about the terrible shot you played on the previous hole isn't particularly helpful. Neither is worrying about the water in front of you, imagining the bunker you're trying to avoid or calculating what your score might be if you par the next four holes. The only shot you can actually play is this one.

That sounds obvious. But it's also remarkably similar to life. Our minds spend an enormous amount of time somewhere other than where we actually are — replaying what happened yesterday, anticipating what might happen tomorrow or imagining all the things that could go wrong.

Golf gives me plenty of opportunities to notice when mine is doing exactly that.

You can't control the outcome

You can choose your club.

Think about the shot.

Set yourself up.

Commit to the swing.

But once you've hit the ball, you've hit it.

Sometimes a good shot gets an unlucky bounce.

Sometimes a terrible shot somehow ends up in a perfectly playable position.

And sometimes you do everything you intended to do and the result still isn't what you wanted.

Again, rather like life.

We can influence outcomes, but we can't control all of them. What we can influence is how we respond to what happens next.

One bad shot doesn't have to ruin the round

This is perhaps where golf provides some of its best lessons. Hit a dreadful shot and it's very easy to carry the frustration into the next one. Then another goes wrong.

And suddenly the problem isn't the original shot anymore — it's everything you're thinking about it.

That was awful.

Why did I do that?

I've ruined my score.

I'm playing terribly.

Sound familiar?

The circumstances may be different, but the process isn't so different from the patterns I explore with clients.

Something happens.

We have thoughts about what happened.

Those thoughts influence how we feel and what we do next.

Golf gives me a wonderfully immediate opportunity to practise noticing that process and coming back to:

What's happening now?

Because I can't replay the last shot. I can only play the next one.

It also reminds me that life should be enjoyable

Not everything needs to be about personal development. I play golf because I enjoy it.

I'm outdoors. I'm moving. I'm concentrating on something completely unrelated to work. I play with other people, laugh a lot and occasionally hit a shot that makes me wonder why the other hundred weren't that easy.

And every now and then, I even win something.

The photograph accompanying this article was taken in November 2023, when I was rather proudly holding two individual trophies I'd won at Mendip Golf Club.

I didn't take up golf to become good at mindfulness. I took it up because I thought I'd enjoy it.

But perhaps that's part of the lesson too.

Sometimes one of the best things we can do for our minds is stop trying to work everything out and become completely absorbed in living the bit of life that's happening right now.