Teaching honor and character has to start at an early age.

This is a picture of my daughter and I last evening at the country club of which my family and I are members. This is the first time my daughter has ever been on a golf course and I wanted it to be special to her. We have played a "modified" version of Putt-putt in our home on more then a few occasions but this is her first time actually touching the grass on real golf green. She was so excited the night before when I told her we would be doing this. She said " I am going to play golf balls with Daddy??? YEAH!!! GOLF BALLS!!!" Of course, I just melted. My daughter wants to golf. And this Daddy wants to make sure that I teach her the most important parts of the game. No its not a grip or a way to swing the club. Its not the love of the outdoors. Its the honor and integrity that is missing in so many other things in life that only golf has taught me.

You see in golf you don't really compete against other people. Its you versus the golf course. Other players don't block your shots, or scream when your putting, or do any other thing to distract you while your playing. ( Unless your actually just partying on the golf course and that's another story) Its just you and your mind trying to get the lowest score you can. The rules are self imposed and self judged. And that's where honor and integrity come in. You the golfer set the standards for how you follow the rules. Most players don't really follow the rules in golf. When your golfing with people you can tell a lot about them by how they "Interpret" the rules for themselves. My goal for my daughter is not the low handicap but the high integrity of what golf is supposed to be. In other words I hope my daughter doesn't "Interpret" anything but instead has the integrity and self imposed honor to "Follow" the rules as she knows them to the best of her abilities.

You see its not about how she does this in golf. Its about how she does this in life that will define her.

And that is part of what being a parent is supposed to be about.


Oh, and lets not forget that some rules are made to be broken. You see, ten minutes after I took this picture I think my daughter decided that she had had enough of "Golf Balls" and wanted to ride around in the golf cart chasing after some deer we saw on the ninth hole.

So much for my daughter and golf.

Well, its not about the game but the lessons learned. And I just learned my daughter would rather play then take lessons.

-CHefdino-