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Recently, a friend of mine sent me a story of a man whose wife continually pestered him to teach her how to play golf. He finally relented and took her to the course. The first hole was a par three of some 170 yards or so. The husband addressed the ball and then proceeded to hit a beautiful shot that came to rest about thirty feet from the cup. "Now you do the same thing I just did," he told his wife. His wife then hit an ugly snap hook that hit a tree on the left of the hole, ricocheted off a rock behind the green and then rolled straight into the cup. "So now you know how to play," the man told his wife. "Let's go home."

That story reminds me of a match I played with a friend of mine way back when I was just learning to play the game. We were in the early holes of the course and playing a rather long par three of nearly two hundred yards. My friend hit a beautiful tee shot that came to rest on the green, a feat which, at that time, was tantamount to perfection for either of us. My shot was ugly. It started left and kept going lefter. Then it happened. It caught a tree flush and kicked straight right, directly at the green. My buddy watched in horror as the ball came to rest one foot from the cup.

Walking up to the green he was grousing with every step about how lucky some people are, there's no justice in the world, yada-yada-yada, you know the routine. I just smiled and calmly tapped in my little short birdie putt. I believe that I may have even said something akin to, "I'd rather be lucky than good." And there it was. The beginning of my life as a golf cliche artist. "Never up, never in." "I usually play in the 70s. If it's any colder than that I don't play." "Ninety percent of all putts left short never go in." "Keep your head down and your left arm straight." That last one is the one I wish to address.

Over the years I have come to appreciate most, if not all, golf cliches with the exception of that last one. There are two things wrong with that little piece of advice. You never want to keep your head down. Keep it still but don't keep it down. If you keep your head down you will bump it on the backswing with your shoulder and move your eyes from the ball. Keep the left arm extended. Trying to keep it straight creates tension that most golfers don't need. Tension ruins the fluidity of the swing. Keep your head still and the left arm extended. (unless you're left handed then it's the right arm) That's the key. What this facilitates in a golf swing is maintaining the proper relationship to the ball.

"Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul's advice to the church at Thessalonica has that certain sound of a cliche. It is not so cliche as it is succinct. Paul wasted no words in saying a world of understanding. Life can be a series of distractions. There are events in our lives that threaten to move us from the proper relationship with Jesus. When we are ever ready to pray we are constantly living in that proper relationship. We are looking to God the Father through Jesus the Christ for who and what we are. The proper relationship is everything. After all, "It's not what you know, but who you know."

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

The Fulfilling Marriage