Rain or Shine

 

If you’re like me (and I’d like to think that you are), whenever you plan a round of golf you probably find yourself obsessed with checking the weather to make sure you won’t have to cancel. Since I worked as a golf pro several years ago, though, I’ve learned that sometimes your best golf can happen when the weather is its most threatening. Obviously, I’m not suggesting that you put yourself in harm's way or try to play golf in dangerous conditions. What I am saying, though, is that sometimes it can be fun, and beneficial, to suck it up, put on your waterproof gear, grab an extra towel, and go play in the rain. Let me give you three reasons why. 

Playing in bad conditions will help you appreciate the beautiful days. 

I’m really bad about taking the things I have for granted. I’ll be golfing along on a beautiful, sunny day, and not even take a moment to take it all in or stop and thank God for the opportunity. I’ll tell you what, though, it only takes one day of crappy weather golfing for me to change my tune real quick. When I’m out in the rain or the snow or the freezing temperatures, all I can think about are the beautiful days, and it makes me realize how thankful I should be for all the great days I get out on the course. Life is like that, though, and so is faith. It often takes crappy, bad circumstances for us to really appreciate the good times. So next time the weather gets bad and you’ve got a tee time don’t cancel. Go ahead and play, it might just make you more thankful and appreciative of the beautiful days you get out on the course.

Playing in bad conditions gets you out of your comfort zone. 

Golf is like anything else in life, when we get comfortable we get complacent, and when we get complacent we stop getting better. In the game of golf, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse, so sometimes it pays to get out of our comfort zones to push ourselves and get better. Granted, it doesn’t take playing a round of golf in a rainstorm to get you out of your comfort zone, but it’s one way to do it. One of the things I tell my church all the time is that we must constantly be fighting against getting complacent as Christians. It’s the same as golfers, we need to constantly be fighting against getting comfortable and complacent. Playing in bad weather will get you out of that comfort zone and get you pushing yourself to be better, tougher, and stronger than you ever were before. 

Playing in bad conditions actually improves your game.

Think about it this way: if you can stick a gap wedge onto a green from 100 yards and sink the putt on a rainy day you can definitely do it on a bright, sunny day. Learning how to hit shots in bad weather will actually help you improve your game in good weather, believe it or not. For one, it just builds confidence. Knowing you can hit the shot, good weather or bad, will make your confidence skyrocket so that when you step up to hit that shot on a good day, you’ll know you can do it. Not only that, you really have to be conscious of how you’re playing a course and be strategic in your approach, which will only benefit you on nicer days. You can carry over the “mental” approach to the game on good days to give you an edge. 

Let’s face it, no one wants to golf in bad weather. It’s not something that I’m actively trying to do on the regular. But, I’ve learned over the years to just roll with the punches and just go ahead and play, rain or shine. It will help you appreciate the better days, it will get you out of your comfort zone, and it will actually help you become a better, mentally tougher golfer. So next time you’ve got a tee time and the forecast starts to turn bad, just man up, go out there, and make the best of it!