Click here to view the embedded video.

Apologies if you are among the 3 million people who’ve already viewed this on YouTube.

So you can imagine my amusement when I came across this short video on YouTube with JC Anderson demonstrating just what I was talking about.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What about the top professional golfers? These are the men and women who have the sorts of swings we mere golfing mortals dream of having. They also hole a lot more puts than many of us and they have access to the top coaches and golf psychologists whenever they need help. What about financial security? Well, unless they have serious behavioural problems, they have more than enough money stashed away and the prospect of earning and winning more.

So, do the professionals enjoy their golf? Well clearly some do and clearly some don’t – a picture of Colin Montgomerie just zoomed into focus in my mind’s eye. No, he doesn’t look like he’s enjoying himself, whatever he’s saying to the press recently. And what about the people around him? His playing partners all cringe and look away, his caddy appears to hide behind the bag and the spectators feel uncomfortable – apart from the ones who enjoy watching his discomfort.

So what about you and your golfing friends? I know that there have been times in the past when I’ve been very unhappy on the course and I suspect I have impacted the enjoyment of some of my playing partners – thinking about it, I know I have, because a couple of them have told me about it.

Now I’ve devoted a huge part of my life to playing and improving my golf over the last 40 years. Even at one round per week, that would be 2,000 rounds or 36,000 holes and it would have taken at least 55,000 hours at 3 hours and 45 minutes per round. And then there’s all that practice, lessons, reading books and playing CDs and DVDs. And of course, there’s the 19^th hole to consider as well. I wonder how much of that time I really enjoyed. At least it‘s probably more than Monty has!

I’ll be writing more about this issue of golf enjoyment and how you can enjoy your golf more in a in a future edition of my Golf Hypnotist Ezine, so I’ll leave you for today with a couple of my favourite quotes on enjoying your golf.

"If you can’t enjoy the time between golf shots, then you are going to have a pretty difficult life because most of your life is the time spent in-between."
Peter Jacobsen

"Achieving a certain level of success in golf is only important if you can finally enjoy the level you’ve reached after you’ve reached it."
Anon

"He enjoys that perfect peace, that peace beyond all understanding, which comes at its maximum only to the man who has given up golf."
P.G. Wodehouse

And finally, one of my many favourite quotes from Bob Hope:

"I get upset over a bad shot just like anyone else. But it’s silly to let the game get to you. When I miss a shot I just think what a beautiful day it is. And what pure fresh air I’m breathing. Then I take a deep breath. I have to do that. That’s what gives me the strength to break the club."

With the Masters being in early April, it’s no surprise to find a couple of hoaxes relating to that tournament. I’ve found two, if you disregard the disqualification of Roberto De Vicenzo in the 1968 Masters. Not a hoax as such, but worthy of mention anyway.

The Masters 1968 – The hoax was on Roberto De Vicenzo

The 1967 British Open Champion, De Vicenzo was in top form coming into the Masters and leapt into a tie with Bob Goalby with a closing back nine 31. Although the officials knew his correct score, they wouldn’t let him amend his card when they spotted that his playing partner Tommy Aaron had accidentally marked him down for a par 4 on the 17^th rather than the birdie 3 everyone knew he had scored. Not only did they not allow him that one shot that would have sent him into a well-earned playoff, but they didn’t even accept the par 4 he signed for that would have put him in second place. They disqualified him. A true and unfair “hoax” result.

Golf Magazine 1990 – Public Access to Augusta National

Moving on with two more conventional and thankfully more amusing hoaxes involving the Masters, I’ll start with one from May 1990. That month in reporting the news from the Masters, Golf Magazine told its readers that it had good news for them. They explained that now anyone could play at hallowed Augusta National, the extremely elite private golf course where the Masters tournament is held.

The club was scheduling certain times when they’d allow public access. Not surprisingly, both Augusta National and Golf Magazine were inundated with calls from golfers eager to take divots out of the pristine fairways. The club was outraged and the magazine had to publish a full retraction.

Golfweek Insider 2008 – The hoax gambling debt

A blogger made up a hoax story about a certain leading golf professional losing 200,000 dollars gambling with members at Augusta National and then trying to get out of paying up. The blogger also attributed the story to Golfweek’s Insider Column and went on to suggest that the irate members who were owed money had dragged the player before the club chairman, who was said to have told him to pay up or get out of the tournament.

Now I need to stress that this was an April Fool’s day hoax and there is no truth in the story.

I’ll be back tomorrow on a self-hypnosis induced high with something more appropriate to this blog.

The golf demonstration starts 40 seconds into the action, but the rest is worth watching too.

This clip just amused me so much that I just had to include it in my blog.