The Muggsy Files: On the Environment…

by Muggsy

It has come to my attention that proximity, not competence, is often the reason for choosing a particular profession—doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, golf pro.

As one person, I can only be in one place at one time, so I’ve decided to begin publishing short golf instructional pieces to help as many people as possible overcome the debilitating experience of travel.

I mean, why go to a guru in India when you can walk to an ashram down the block, right?

I’m guessing the golf course you play at will have one or two, maybe even three pros—mostly certified—all teaching different things in their own way.

What most teach is whatever they happen to be working on at any given time. As we grow older, our swings change, so we teach that… and then we tend to change perspective. Seriously, who wants to teach the same thing like a robot for thirty years?

And then maybe, if you are at least able, you learn to go where the student is rather than have them come to you.

I was speaking to a friend who used to teach golf (and should continue), and we couldn’t help but laugh at how, in the beginning of our teaching careers, we tried to make everyone great golfers. But then reality set in. The material—the hand-eye coordination and athleticism—wasn’t showing up in our part of town, so we compromised.

Instead of perfection, we went to competence—that’s right, I wanted everyone walking out of my lessons at least understanding how the swing worked so they couldn’t be bamboozled by some charlatan beating that old drum: “Keep your head down, left arm straight,” and all that.

But again, the natural material for competence rarely showed. Another compromise: just wanting the student to be happy.

And after so many years it occurred to us both that maybe, in the end, we had learned more than our students. I cannot speak for him, but it made me happier to be in any space with grateful people wanting to learn and happy to achieve what I would have considered mediocre results just a few years prior.

It takes sustained effort to pump out perfection, and my students sucked sustainability out of me years ago. Which is the reason I don’t care about the environment.