Atrocious Putting and Other Lies I’ve Believed

This week, my anxiety has been loud!! Relentless, really. Telling me, I’ve lost my drive, that I’m failing at the things I care most about: being a present mom, taking care of myself, keeping it together. Just getting to the gym feels like climbing uphill with no end in sight. I’ve been stuck in my head, feeling like I’ve somehow undone all the progress I worked so hard for.

And then my husband told me a story.

He met this guy, Patrick, on one of the boys golf trips he had been invited too. His rookie year actually. Back to Patrick, he was a classic “business-first, family-second” kind of guy who introduced himself by telling my husband his putting stroke was atrocious. Bold, right? Patrick went on to brag about his company, playing in the BMW Pro-Am, and the time he played with “some guy you would know, from that one show”. But as he continued on and on, my husband tuned out, he couldn’t help but fixate on his putting, and how “atrocious” it was.

Later, that summer my husband went to get fitted for a new putter and met Thomas, a much younger guy who watched his stroke and said something that stuck: “It’s not you. It’s the grass.” Apparently, switching from the South grass to the North grass is a huge adjustment. What Patrick called atrocious? It wasn’t actually broken, it was just unfamiliar terrain. Mind you, my husband still shot in the 80’s with 40+ putts, and Patrick barely broke 100.

When my husband told me that, I felt something shift.

Because right now, I’m also playing on new grass. Toddler mom life, exhaustion, the constant push and pull of trying to care for everyone and somehow myself too. And yeah, my rhythm feels off. My habits aren’t perfect. But maybe that doesn’t mean I’ve failed. Maybe it just means, I’m adjusting.

Patricks’s voice: the critic, is loud in all of us.

But Thomas’ voice? That’s the voice I want to listen to. The one that says, you’re not failing, you’re learning to play a different course, in a different terrain.

Closing thought:

What’s your “atrocious putting” story right now? And what would change if you believed you’re not broken, you’re just adjusting to new terrain?