Ted Bishop Take-Aways

How we talk about things is most certainly a lens into how we think about those things.  Yes?  No?  Well, perhaps not always.  Perhaps it only counts if we put those things in writing, yes?  Because if it's not in writing then we could be misquoted, or misunderstood.   Yes?  No?  Does it count if we delete those offensive things, like from our Twitter and Facebook accounts?  Yes?  No?  I'm confused.  When does it count?

Ted Bishop has suggested it doesn't count in his case because both his children are female and they've both made their careers in the golf industry and he's always been "a great advocate for women and girls in golf."

Feminist psycholinguists tell us that when men resort to gender-loaded insults there's more than a hint that those men not entirely comfortable with women as equals, but I'm not confident that the psycholinguists are widely read outside fairly narrow academic circles.

Still, is calling another guy a "L'il Girl" or saying he sounds "like a little school girl squealing at recess" insulting?  And if it's insulting, who's being insulted?  The guy who got called "L'il Girl"?  Little school girls?  All women?  All men?  The cosmos?

What's Wrong With My Game? Or Is It My Attitude?

I've found myself over the last couple of weeks more often than not leaving the golf course feeling frustrated, vaguely dissatisfied, irritable -- not the kinds of feelings I want to be having at the end of a round of golf.

I've been blaming it on my game.  It's not been good enough -- I'm in a slump.   I've had too many 3-putts.  I need more distance off the tee.  My chips are coming up short and off-target.  The litany of my inadequacies had gotten way too long.  I was overwhelmed.

Cold Balls - Warm Heart

Living in South Carolina, where fall comes later and spring comes earlier than many other parts of the US, I'm still playing in shorts but I know we're edging up to a change in seasons because I'm now taking a sweater with me to the golf course.  Although I'm only wearing it on the range and through the first three or four holes, and although I'm still a little bit sweaty at the end of my round, I know cold weather's coming and with it cold hands, cold knees, cold nose, and cold golf balls.

Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect

Me (far right) and my instruction group and our very pregnant
instructor (center) at the LPGA 1-Day Clinic,
Druid Hills Golf Club, Atlanta

Several rounds ago something strange happened to my swing.  I started sending my balls off to the right and the left of my target, into clusters of trees rather than keeping them in the short grass where they belong.

It was a problem that just popped up, and I struggled with low-lying limbs and poorly placed tree trunks as I tried to get back to the fairway.

One of my playing partners, who's fairly experienced at navigating through trees, suggested after the round that I needed to develop an effective punch shot so I could get myself out of tree trouble.