To play good tournament golf, or to do anything well for that matter, depends on your ability to stay in or go to the here and now. It's a strange and different place for some of us, because in the busy world we live in, we are always thinking, always calculating, putting out fires and solving problems.
I'll tell you the three people that I learned the most from about this here and now -- the zone as we are all accustomed to talking about it. My 3 1/2-year-old son, Luke, and 2-year-old daughter, Haley. Haley and my wife, especially when it comes to shopping. But my wife is not the third person. And it's not quite the same zone that I'm referring to.
The third person is my favorite teacher of all time -- Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Jesus taught the world about the here and now. It was really subatomic physics when you think about it. Faith of a mustard seed can move mountains, speak the words of good and they will come to pass. That story of the Roman soldier who asked Jesus to heal his dying servant that had become more of a brother to him, Jesus agreed to go to the home of the Roman and the soldier stopped him and said you don't have to come to my house, just speak the words and I know that it will be done.
This is the here and now stuff through the words we speak. Our words have power and create our future.
Jesus taught the here and now, the zone. This may be the title of my next book -- perhaps, "The Zone by Jesus."
Tiger Woods, who has been playing like Jesus, hit two shots in the 2000 season that perfectly described this here and now stuff. At the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach on the sixth hole, he hit a 220-yard uphill shot out of the rough with a 6-iron to 10 feet and made the egale putt.
Later that year at the Canadian Open he hit another 6-iron 220 yards over water out of a bunker, to eight feet. On both accounts after the tournaments Tiger was asked what those shots were like to hit. As he started to describe them he stopped and said, I don't really know what happened I can't remember. It often happens on the best shots that I hit."
Michael Jordan described it the same way in 1992 after he made five three-pointers in a row. Sir Lawrence Olivia spoke about it too with regards to his acting. After studying Hamlet for months and falling in love with the role he was about to play, he completed opening night and this was in Oxford, England, where they might know a thing or two about Shakespeare. He received a 20-minute standing ovation. After the play he was in his dressing room and his friends came to him and they said with glee, Lawrence that was amazing.
Lawrence looked up from his dressing room floor. He was pacing back and forth mumbling to himself. Dumbfounded and some what perturbed he spat back at them, "Why don't you think I know that!" After several minutes, one of the best friends asked, "why are you so upset? There has never been such an amazing interpretation of Hamlet ever done."
Lawrence looked at them and said, "I know, but I don't know how I did it and I don't know how I will ever do it again."
That is the here and now. That is the zone that we are all trying to find. And the reason it is so tough to find is it's right here in the moment that you just let slip by with your thinking about something else.
Find the swing of the future at www.7mythsofgolf.com.
Bill Bondaruk is a PGA Class A member. After traveling the mini tours, Bondaruk taught for a few world-renowned golf schools, including John Jacobs, Jim McLean and Scott Sackett's Resort Golf. He was Director of Instruction at Arizona National and swing instructor for the University of Arizona men's and women's golf teams. He has worked with a list of tour professionals as well as collegiate stars.
