Why Golf can Help Your Kids be Nice People

As I ambled around the golf course this morning, it occurred to me that golf is a bit of a metaphor for life.

Sometimes things go your way. You get that nice little ‘cracking’ sound as you wallop your dreams from the tee right onto the fairway of life and you feel as if you’re cruising. Life is good!

Other times you whack a dodgy into the rough and find yourself having to chip around obstacles and problems.

Then there are the occasions when you land in a full-on bunker. Doesn’t matter what you do, you can’t seem to dig your way out.

Taking this ‘life/golf’ idea even further, I got to thinking that perhaps all children should be taught how to play golf.

Why? Because in golf you are expected to honour rules and etiquette – concepts every child needs to learn.

For example, when a player steps up to the tee, everyone else is expected to keep still and shut up while they take their shot. Now that’s a good lesson in manners.

And you have to take turns in golf, meaning that sharing, waiting and being patient are ….um … par for the course (if you will pardon my pun!).

If you chop out a divot on a golf course, you are expected to repair it.

That’s about respecting your environment and being considerate of other’s who use the space.

If you’re playing slowly and another group of players is hard on your heels, it’s etiquette to offer to let them ‘play through’ so as to not hold up their game. That’s being thoughtful.

When a player does a rubbish shot, it’s considered inappropriate to laugh or mock them -- tempting as this might be! That’s a lesson in kindness and learning to control one’s impulses. (In any case, if you’re anything like me, chances are you will soon do a rubbish shot yourself!)

When you finish using each club, it’s good form to wipe it clean before replacing it in your bag. That’s a lesson in taking care of one’s own things.
Some golf links have special rules about attire, so this is a lesson in caring about how you present yourself.

Bad language on a golf course is discouraged, so our budding Greg Normans would be learning to watch their ‘p’s and ‘qs’ (and ‘f’s) and use appropriate language.
And finally, the nineteenth hole is off limits for juniors so they won’t be associating alcohol with sport …. or learning to tell big fibs about how many birdies, eagles, albatrosses they almost got.

There, that’s it. One game of golf and our kids would have learned the basics of how to behave in the game of life!

Well, now I’ve got the next generation sorted, I wonder if I can get some of those naughty adult players to start toeing the line?

What’s that? A new rule, you say? All do-gooding Kitchen Philosophers are banned from the local course?

Hmph!