Is Anger the Silver Bullet?

Here’s an interesting phenomenon I’ve noticed recently on the golf course. I’m playing along, making reasonable shots and scores on each hole, and something out of nowhere comes along, gets in my head and pisses me off.

It could be an offhand remark from a playing partner, a recollection of something my wife said or did earlier, or even just random memory from the past that crops up in my head. At first I don’t pay much attention to it, but then, as I’m waiting for something on the course, I have a chance to consider it more and find I’m getting a little angry.

Now as we all know, playing distracted on the golf course can lead to some truly awful play out there. You can’t concentrate because you’re obsessing over something and every possible golf thought gets pushed aside. Most of the time you can’t even swing a club when this happens. But here’s the question for today – have you ever noticed that sometimes it works the opposite way and you can play some really good golf when you’re pissed off?

This happened to me the other day. I was playing a rather uninspired round making mostly bogies and not really doing anything overly well. Then, about six holes in, a random thought crept into my head about an incident with my father from ages ago. Usually anything associated with that man is enough to produce rage, but this time the memory just popped into my head and then, poof, it was gone.

But on the next hole, as I was waiting for the par three green ahead to clear, it popped back in again and I had a chance to consider it further. And as I stood there, six iron in hand, I found myself getting really pissed off.

Of course I didn’t say anything about it to my playing partners, but as I stepped up to the tee, I put all of my anger into that one shot and just made the most pure, crisp, tuning-fork-in-my-loins contact with the ball and it sailed off into the blue sky and came to rest five feet left of the pin.

“Nice shot!” was the only snide remark that anyone in the group could muster and I was as amazed as they were with how the shot came off.

I holed the putt for my birdie and then started making some really good shots on the subsequent holes. Drives long and straight down the middle, solid iron shots, and some really good putting. What began as a very mediocre round was turning into a very good one.

We all know that good play buoys the mood on the course more than anything else can (save for a naked cart girl showing up with free drinks for everyone) and my disposition improved a lot after I started making those good shots. But then the anger started to fade away as well. The focus started to erode. There was an occasional errant drive, or chunky chip, or dreaded three putt.

By the last three holes, the round had come full circle to the way it started – nothing special with a bogie, bogie, bogie finish. The anger was gone as well, banished away to the dark recesses of my brain where it lives.

So is getting pissed on the course the silver bullet we are all searching for that will let us play our best golf? Probably not, as anger is fleeting and golf is supposed to be relaxing and fun. But it sure was good while it lasted. Strange things these brains of ours.