Just Have Fun
I play golf because it is my dad’s favorite sport. My dad didn’t know much about the sport until after immigrating to America. He grew up in America watching people like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer play and began teaching himself the game of golf. As a kid, any money he had made from his paperboy runs, he used to buy clubs. When I was born, he watched Tiger Woods in his era, and saw this person breaking boundaries and numerous records left and right. He bought me my first set of clubs when I was merely 4 years old (Snoopy branded, of course).
Golf became a form of communication between me and my dad. During my early adolescence, my dad was always flying from place to place for work, so finding time to spend together was difficult. It was not until late middle school/early high school that he started playing more of a presence in my day to day. That was when golf solidified as a piece of my life. I remember how excited my dad got when I joined my golf team freshman year of high school. After hearing the news, he had every part of his being ready and available to coach me, and chauffeur for my practices and games, whatever my team needed. This was an activity I was looking forward to sharing with him.
When it came to sports, I was never super competitive. I only joined my golf team because it gave me an afterschool activity, and something I could do with my dad - it was never really about winning. Sure, there were glimpses during my high school golf career where I could image myself taking golf further, working with a golf coach and spending hours on end practicing on my putting, chipping, and distance, with the hopes of cutting down strokes that would get me qualifying in the collegiate level. But at the end of the day, the game was about spending more time with my dad and understanding the sport from his perspective. He taught me to enjoy every part of the sport, even the most boring parts. We would create mini competitions, competing on putting, strokes, and accuracy within my practices to make it more fun. One category I couldn’t beat him in was distance.
I remember near the end of my junior year golf season, I had qualified with my team to play in the NCS championship. My dad had been driving me to every game, and wasn’t going to miss his chance to watch us this time. I started off the front 9 shooting pretty well, but ended the back 9 shooting in the 50’s. After seeing how I had performed the front 9 versus the back 9, my coach got super frustrated with me, and started lecturing me on all the things I had done wrong. My dad saw this whole incident go down, pulled me aside after and said, “I don’t like her attitude. All that matters is if you had fun. Did you?” I nodded. And that was his perspective on golf; just have fun. The next year, my dad had not-so-subtlety suggested I should enjoy my senior year without the pressure that came from rejoining my high school golf team. That was when I understood, my dad would make sure I prioritize my happiness and well-being over all else.
My relationship with golf has evolved over the years. This game has seen me grow beyond my adolescent ages into adulthood, and has been there through the highs and lows. I am grateful this is a bond I get to share with my dad for a lifetime.
Isabel Tung