Golf In A Parallel Universe (13 page)

I got back home about 10:15 am. “I got all day what am I going to do?," I asked myself. “Should I contact Emily? No, I will contact her tomorrow," I tell myself. I need to get a good feel on how this week will be with these golf lessons with Gus. Hopefully I will know by tomorrow.

Wednesday morning. I get to the course about 7:45. I get my gear together and head to his shop by the clubhouse. I walk in, same as yesterday. “This old building has seen a lot of golf” I tell myself as I walk in. He is in the back room and he is busy working on something. “Good Morning!," I shout out. He looks up, like I have interrupted him from doing something important. “You know the Drill, I will be out there in a few minutes," he says. “Sounds good” I replied. I walked out smiling. "This may be an adventure," I tell myself. I get some balls and went out and hit a few got loose.

About 8:15 he came out. He was carrying a duffle bag. “How you doing today Gus?," I asked. “Fine fine” he grumbled. “Except I am tired of looking at your swing on tape," he said. “Any hope for me?” I said jokingly. He looked up like he was not amused. “How long have you been on tour?," he asked. “Ten years," I replied feeling worried. “I do not see that your swing has any major issues” he said in a somewhat encouraging tone. He continued on. “I see some things in your swing that you may have gotten away with when you were young and strong. But that is not substantial now. But you asked me if there is hope?," he said as he had his lips pressed tight nodding his head and thinking. Then he paused for about 5 seconds, which seemed like an eternity to me. My emotions are all confused. I feel like little kid talking to adult or someone with authority like a teacher or a coach or someone. Then he looked up at me. “There's always hope," he said grinning. "Now let's get to work," he barked out. I laughed and then I felt relieved. I felt like maybe he is just playing with me. Maybe he does have a personality.

We start to work and I hit a few balls. Then he starts talking and getting into teacher mode. Once he started talking about my swing. And how the golf swing is suppose to work, then I realized that this guy is good. I could tell in the first 15 seconds that he really knows his stuff. It was like when you have a meeting with a Financial Planner, a Lawyer, or a business executive. After the initial chit chat when they start talking, you realize they really know more about their craft than you could ever know. And that's the way it was here with Gus. I have been around golf most of my life and thought I knew the game. But it became very obvious and very quickly that he knows more about the golf swing than I would ever know. He was so good and explaining things. That grumpy personality went away when he is in teaching mode. He was very patient and very understanding on any feedback I was giving. We hit balls for an hour, and I was loving it. I was hitting the ball well. And that little voice in my head was thrilled, cheering me on. Gus was going over my swing and showing and telling me what I was doing in great detail. But he was able explain things that I could understand and make sense of. He was not having me change anything. He was just explaining on what I was doing with my swing. He showed me parts of my swing that I never realized. He really knew my swing better than I know my own swing. All the time, he was patient, professional and courteous. It was like he just flipped a switch from his grumpy old self.

“Ok enough on the range Lets go play nine holes," he said. We will use carts to save time. We went to the clubhouse “Separate Carts," he said. “My shots will not be close to yours, besides, a separate cart allows me to watch you. All we are doing is playing, no instructions, I just want to see you play on the course." “OK” I replied. “You hit from the back tees and I will play from the blue," he said as we got to the first tee box.” This course is actually a good championship course which has good length which will work for me. I really wanted to show him what I can do. At first I felt nervous. But then I realized that I am comfortable with him. He seems to have some odd way of putting me at ease. I really hit the ball well. I thought. He did not say much, he just observed.

Also I was curious how he would play. And I was impressed. He had a really nice swing. He is an older man about 66, so he did not have a lot of power compared to me. But he could hit is drives about 240 yards. And it was every time. His swing was fluid and seemed to be fundamentally solid. I asked what his handicap is. “I don't play enough anymore to have a handicap.” he replied. “But when I play, I usually shoot mid to high 70s to low 80’s," he told me. “Not bad” I replied.

We finished our round and went back to the range. He told me what he had observed when we played the nine holes. “When you play” he said. “You have a different swing for every shot. That's not good. If you want to go to the next level, you basically have to have the same swing for each shot.” “By the way," he said as he paused. “Your mid and long irons suck." I just nervously chuckled and did say anything. He continued on. “We have been talking about your swing all day. Now we are going to go over what the golf swing really is. But one step at a time," he said.

Then he started going over the swing. “Without a ball, setup in a stance. Take a nice smooth practice swing," he told me. I did that. “Again, but nice and smooth” he said softly. “What do you see” he asked. “Uh, I don't know," I said in a confused tone. “Just a golf swing I guess," I replied. “Now you have been playing golf most of your life” he said. “I am sure you have had lots of lessons and heard the old saying that a golf swing is just like a Pendulum, correct?," he asked. “Huh yea” I replied. “Wrong!” he barked out. “A golf swing is not “like” a pendulum," he said as he held up his two hands making the quotation gesture with his two fingers on each hand. He looked at me right in the eye. “It is a Pendulum!," he said intently. “If you only get one thing out of these lessons. I want you to understand that a golf swing is a pendulum. You understand," he said looking at me. “OK, OK," I responded in agreement. “Setup again," he said. “Bring the club back, then follow through," which I did. “Your golf swing is a pendulum, just like a Grandfather Clock. You go back then your club goes down, and glides to the bottom and then up. That my young man in the physics world is a Pendulum. It's not a pretty pendulum because you have muscles, tendons, bones and a brain in the way. But it is in fact a pendulum. Once you understand that, then you will master a major component of the golf swing” he said smiling. “OK” I responded an intrigued tone.

Then he went to the black duffel bag that he brought in this morning and unzipped it. He dug around in the bottom and finally pulled out something. He brought out a stick with some string on it. He was unwinding as he was walking towards me. “Here," he said. He handed me this flat wooden stick which was finished and polished about 18 inches long. It had a white string on it which looked like some type of heavy fishing line. And at the end of that string was a shiny heavy stainless steel ball, about the size of a large marble. “Take this” he said. “Hold it out in front of you. Gently rock it back and forth and get the ball moving, he told me. So I did. I rocked it back and forth and had a nice little pendulum going on. “Concentrate on the Pendulum” he said intently. “Notice how smooth it goes back, then changes direction. Notice at the bottom how smooth it transitions from going down to up. Back and forth, back and forth," he told me calmly. I felt the smoothness of it rocking back and forth. If it slows down just rock a little more and let if flow. You feel that?," he asked “Yeah” I replied. “Pay attention!” he said. Notice how the gravity works. It goes down, bottoms out and smoothly goes up, back and forth. “Yeah, I see," I said in whatever attitude. “This is a golf swing” he said. “The more you can emulate a pendulum, the better your swing will be. Do this for 10 minutes." he said. “Concentrate on the movement of this pendulum and try to have an open mind and let you mind go. Appreciate what you are seeing. Ten minutes, without stop, I will be back," he said. And he walked away. I felt like a fool standing on the range doing this. Then I remember what Jerry told me to keep an open mind and do what he says. So I continued. After a couple of minutes I starting relaxing. I let my mind go and watched the silver ball as it rocked back and forth. It was interesting to see how it just went back and forth. And the ball was at the mercy of the string and the stick. But gravity just let it go back and forth. I have never really thought about a golf swing as a pendulum, but here it is. I was in a trance.

Finally he came back. It seemed like only a minute but ten minutes had passed. “Ok!” he barked out. “Like I said, the golf swing is a pendulum. I can tell you that a million times but you will never realize it until you can feel what a pendulum is. What I want you to do, is to take this with you. I want you to do this for at least an hour a day. Ten minutes here, ten minutes there. When you are home watching TV, pick it up. When you doing nothing, pick it up. If you do this your brain will start to understand. Also for the next few days, during your warm up at the beginning of practice, do this before you start hitting balls.” “Ok," he said. You did your ten minutes just now, time to call it a day. Tonight, you got 50 more minutes of this drill. See you tomorrow at 8:00am. And he walked off.

“Ok this is weird as usual," I told myself as I gathered up my gear and got in the car. As I was driving home, I am starting to wonder if this is some type of joke that Jerry Churchill is playing on me. However, I make up my mind that I will force myself to do what he says. “So what day is this?," I ponder as I am driving along. Wednesday! I remember. “Maybe I should contact Emily tonight," I tell myself. As I am driving home, I start to think about her again. I so much want to see her again. And she is right here Florida. “But how do I do this?," I ask myself. I start feeling nervous, like I am in high school getting ready to make that phone call. So I devise a plan. When I get home, I will just text her! Thank goodness for modern technology. I don’t have to make that nervous phone call. I will just ask her is she has time to talk. So it will not be a cold call when I call.

I finally got home took in my gear. I put that silly stick and ball on the table and grabbed a beer. I relaxed for a few minutes and I was thinking about the last two days with Gus. Then I started to think about Emily. “OK game time. Time to text Emily," I tell myself. So I get my cell phone out and pulled up her name. “So what do I say?," I ask myself. So I started texting. I have all kinds of trouble texting trying to figure out what I want to say. Texting is such a pain sometimes. Finally I get my text together and review “Hey Emily, this is Jim Galloway the Golfer in Orlando. Hope you you had a good trip to your parents house. I told you that I would contact you this week. Let me know if you have a minute to talk or get back with me when you can. Take care, Jim." Then I Send it. “See that was not so bad," I tell myself. So cool, I did not put my butt out on the line making a fool of myself trying to make that nervous phone call like a teenager. The ball is now in her court. I put my phone on the table. One more beer sounds good. It has been a crazy day.

I start to get some things together for dinner. So after about 10 minutes I am drinking my beer and cooking some food and my phone chirps. I look over and sure enough it is a text from Emily. I pick up my phone and read it. “Hi Jim, good to hear from you. If you want to talk, I am free anytime the next few minutes." “Cool!” I said out loud. I replied, “Ok, calling now." So then I pushed the little phone icon and I calling away. I am not even nervous since it happened so fast. She picked up “Hi Jim! How are you doing?," she asked. I responded and said I was doing fine. I asked her how her trip was and if she is enjoying being with her family.

After the initial chit chat we just started talking. It was so amazing. After we started talking it just seemed like she was so easy to talk to. It seemed like we have known each other for ever. No nervous chit chat from either one of us. She seemed comfortable and happy to talk to me as I was to her. She told me that she followed me on the TPC last week and how she was pulling for me. I told her that I played well but was disappointed that I did not do better. But I was overall happy with the outcome because my game seems to be improving. I told that I do have these two weeks off. But I am working hard with a Swing Coach and it is keeping me busy during the day. I asked about her job and how's that going. She said it has been the same old thing. She said she was happy to be with her parents for a few days. She has not seen them much the last few years. She did not really care to talk much about her job.

As we wound down. “Well hey, will you be around the next few days? If so, we can get together if you like," I told her. “Sure!," she responded. At that point I felt a big relief. I got that question out of the way. So you live in Orlando, right?," she asked. “Yep” I responded. “Well my parents live on the east side Tampa. How about we meet somewhere about halfway?," she asked. “That sounds great” I responded. I told her my days are crazy and I do not know if I will be finished early or late, but usually I am done by about 5:00pm. “How about if we meet somewhere about 7:00 pm Friday night” she responded. “That sounds great” I replied. That will give me time to get home and cleaned up from my practice all day. As far as a place to meet. We decided to meet at a restaurant in Lakeland which is a few miles east of Tampa.

We talked a few more minutes and see seemed excited to make plans to get together. Finally we both said goodbye and we hung up. “Wow! I got a date on Friday night!," I said to myself. I was so happy. I looked at my phone and it showed that we had talked for 40 minutes! I cannot believe that. It seemed like we only talked for 5 minutes. I can never remember being so comfortable talking with a woman like that on the phone. Oh well time to eat. I ate dinner and then relaxed. Then I saw the pendulum stickball on the table. “Oh God," I said to myself. He told me I have to do this 50 more minutes today. I do not know if I can do this. I did it for 10 minutes. Then 10 more minutes later. Then 15 minutes here and there. The more I did it, the easier it got. It was relaxing for some reason. I would watch the little ball go back and forth and try to picture a golf swing. So finally with bits and pieces of time doing this, I got my 50 minutes in. Starting tomorrow, 10 minutes before and after my sessions, so then I will only have 40 minutes to make up the rest of the day. It all seemed silly, but I will do what he Gus says. Finally I got to bed. I was tired. I closed my eyes, and I would see that stupid little ball going back and forth. “My Gosh” I told myself and I turned over.