More fun with young golfers

I had already learned from my seven year-old grandson that hitting balls at the driving range was not much fun. So yesterday we tried his suggestion of hitting balls on the soccer field. We made a game of hitting them from one end down through the goal posts at the other end.

His swing technique is getting better and he hit a couple of good 7-irons at least 50 yards. Scared me once as he sent a long one towards the parking lot and all those windshields sitting there. That and taking out a few of his little brother's teeth on the backswing were the biggest risks. The little brother, age four, also did quite well with his hockey slap shot technique from his hours of road hockey.

All in all we had fun and made progress. That's as good as it gets in golf (and business).

Getting rusty

As Tiger comes back from his surgery and the recovery related delay to play the US Open this week there is much talk of whether he's rusty or not. Strange term to use after he has presumably had the "rust" removed from the hinge that is his left knee.

Not many are convinced that it will provide any competitive advantage to the others in the tournament. Tiger has played sick, tired, distracted and injured before and still won. Maybe harder for him and closer for the others, but he's still able to pull it out through sheer strength of will. His mental toughness is formidable under pressure.

That's probably the golf and business lesson for all of us. After any setback or prolonged absence it is important to re-focus and concentrate on the fundamentals to achieve our goals. Keep it simple, ignore the obstacles, and go for it.

Coaching a young golfer

I started a new golf challenge on the weekend - introducing the game to my seven year-old grandson.

We soon agreed that hitting balls at the driving range is not much fun.

First lesson for me: Like coaching young entrepreneurs, there is no point in doing this if it's not going to be fun because there is certainly no guarantee that you'll ever make money at it.

So let's find out how to make this fun. I'm looking for ideas and his suggestion of practicing on the soccer field sounds a little risky. Meanwhile I'm looking for whiffle balls before somebody gets hurt.

Another early challenge is which way to swing, left or right. Like many young Canadians he naturally picked up the club to smack it like a slap shot with his hockey stick - left handed. Oops, the clubs were right-handed. After debating with his father, who plays left but is right handed, we decided to keep the right handed clubs and let him start that way. He seemed to get the idea fairly quickly, including an interlocking grip, so we'll keep working at it.

I hope that first decision doesn't keep him from going pro.