What You Can Learn from the Masters Champion

#72

Friend,

Golf, like most challenging experiences, is rarely done perfectly.

The best players in the world with equipment that costs more than my car still hit laughable shots, and we enjoy watching that. And sometimes even a good shot can become a terrible one because the wind picked up, the ball bounced weirdly, or something else happened outside to make the result worse than the shot.

Scottie Scheffler won the Masters yesterday in dominating fashion, yet he still had 9 bogeys and 1 double bogey. As great as he was, he still had some bad shots and bad bounces.

Whenever I see Scheffler be successful, I think back to a Twitter thread I read over a year ago by PGA reporter Sean Martin.

Martin shared how Scottie sees himself is key. He says, “There’s a difference between telling yourself ‘I am a bad golfer’ versus ‘I am a golfer who hit a bad shot.’ It sounds like a small difference but it is pretty dramatic.”

I wonder what it would be like if you had that perspective. You are not a bad parent, but a parent who lets their emotions get the best of them. You are not a bad employee, but an employee who made a serious mistake.

Sometimes our self-anger is our worst trait.

Martin quotes counselor Ed Welch in his book on anger, “What makes us so important that life must go according to our plans? When life throws us unexpected trouble, an arrogant person gets angry.”

The key for Scheffler then is acceptance that golf will not always go to his plan. He could get angry or he could get perspective.

He has learned to accept:

• He will hit bad golf shots.

• That golf shot does not change his identity. (He’s a Christian)

• Letting anger torment him will add stress and more difficulty to the next shot.

• So he accepts his shot and tries to make the best of it.

I want to be like Scottie, and I want you to be like Scottie.

• You will make mistakes.

• Those mistakes will not change your identity.

• Letting anger torment you will only add more stress and difficulty and keep you more likely repeating a bad pattern.

• Accept, repent, learn from your mistake, and improve your situation moving forward.

You and I won’t win The Masters, but mastering our anger and disappointment is an even bigger challenge.

Love,

Aaron