"Master the instrument, master the music, then forget all that shit and play".
Charlie Parker.
One Goal/ endless possibilities.
For over 500 years the game of golf has been played with one single goal, to strike a small ball into a hole in as few amount of strokes as possible.
That's it!
Nothing more, nothing less.
During this period we have seen, read and experienced many varying styles and methods of achieving this single goal. Much has been written and preached, expressed and practiced in an effort to solve the greatest challenge this single goal has to offer. With each and every passing of a generation, the games single standing goal remains the same. Get the ball in the hole in fewer strokes than the next dude and you win! Every new challenger to the podium of dominance has presented a fresh new method or style of combat with which to over power the game. With each new passing of greatness remains another intriguing insight into the potential of the human form as an exponent of control with a ball and stick in search of one single goal.
Thats right, point A to B in as few amount of strokes as possible.
Basically master the use of your sticks, master the control of your golf ball then forget all that shit and just play.
It worked for Charlie Parker in re-shaping, pushing forward, destroying boundaries and inspiring the next generation of talented Jazz musicians with the excitement of the potential future of his beloved art form.
My passion is creative thought and progressive outcomes.
The game of golf; Art or Science?
I once asked my friend and mentor John Jacob's the same question.
'Paul, I believe the game is both an art and science'.
Un-doubtably the game of golf contains elements of both, not just because everything we see and do is apart of science but the pure physics applied to the effective conditions created at impact and the resulting outcome in ball flight. Not to mention the great detail of the human form, biomechanics, psychology and so on.
So why art?
Its a need to create that inspires the use of the word typically associated with the opinionated world of the arts. As free, boundless and expressively creative as the world of art is, it very rarely has the freedom to overspill into the world of sports. You see, when analyzing some of the greatest performances in sporting history you can not leave without asking the question;
'How much of that was art over science?
Naturally science has gained superior momentum over the course of our life as it shall continue, which is why it readily takes pride of place as the most powerful source of reference in the search for progression and greater human advancement in our chosen sports. Science can be measured, recorded and interpreted by all, its a standardized form of understanding. It provides the masses with a more digestable form of reference that can be more easily interpreted and used to progress further.
BUT!
What about the art?
Every element of success, weather its in sport, business, love or just life, the key ingredient is always the creative one. The spontaneous, outside the box, new forms, wild new waze on pearly white moon lit daze. The things we haven't seen or heard before, the matters of thought, the levels of intrigue, expressing the inner most depths of your own self through the platform before you. Weather that platforms a court, a pitch, a course or a board room white board, the endless opportunity to create something special is always within and around us.
Every great performance in sport has and always will contain incredible levels of creative expression, its what separates the best from the rest and the greats from the greatest. A level of creative prowess totally unique to them and completely out of reach of those around them.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Science does not allow for mistakes, its very purpose is to record and document in an effort to control and influence so to eliminate such mistakes in a drive for perfection. Art is ones perception of its subject, its anything you want it to be, you the individual have free rein to see whatever you desire.
Hit it in the trees, find it, play it.
Hit it in the trees and think shit! What the hell happened there, I must of spun out of it early again. Now Im screwed behind this bloody tree, could my day possible get any worse?
Id say yes it could, with a scientific mindset and narrow minded view of the canvas before you not a lot else can come of it.
The artist is:
Free to make mistakes.
Free to explore the course.
Free of doubt.
Free of worry.
Free of anxiety.
Free to be whatever they choose to be.
Free to be themselves.
Free to express.
Free to be individual.
Free to choose.
Free to be as good as they can possibly be.
Stand over your next shot with the freedom of an artist and you have the potential to create beautiful golf shots.
./
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