WANT A CHALLENGE? PLAY GOLF!
I play golf in the Summer in New England and occasionally in the Winter in Miami. I’ve been playing on and off for almost twenty years, but I’ve gotten serious about improving my game over the past five years or so. No one can believe that I like golf. Maybe it’s because people assume that a creative soul like mine wouldn’t like the preppy world of a stereotypical golf country club.
Side-bar: If you want to learn about what a fictional country club life is like, watch Amazon’s “Red Oaks.” It tells the story of the creative misfit daughter of the President of the country club making friends with the wannabe filmmaker/tennis assistant pro at the club along with other stories of family dynamics, love, and income inequality of the members versus the workers. It’s hysterical!
We don’t belong to a club, instead preferring to play a variety of public courses. We’ve been paired with all types of people, some more enjoyable to play with than others. We’ve discovered that golfers are teachers, property managers, sub-contractors, musicians, chefs, business owners (their country club was closed for repairs), scientists, bankers, architects and retirees. It may be the best part of playing on public courses.
Golf is a sport that is mentally and physically challenging. I think that some folks don’t think it’s a proper sport because it’s not aerobic (is baseball?). Of course, now that there are folks who watch professional video gamers, perhaps aerobic exercise is not the only criteria for a sport. One thing that most sports require is practice. I am a fair-weather golfer. I’m not so obsessed that I will play in 100-degree or 40-degree weather, or in rainy or extremely windy conditions. One summer the weather was so gorgeous that we got to play every weekend day and I actually improved my scores!
But golf is not just about learning to strike the ball, which is so much harder than it looks on TV. Golf is mentally challenging!!! Once I broke 100, I raised my expectations for myself. Confidence is important in any sport or work of any kind, I guess, but golf is unlikely to allow you to sustain that confidence. One time I broke 90, then I scored a 104 the next time out. Last week I got one of my very rare birdies on one hole, then immediately scored a double bogey on the next hole. Explain, please. Then explain why I love to play it!
Architecture and Interior design are also challenging. Fortunately, our successes build on each other. No project is perfect, but the issues tend to get smaller as our experience increases. Experience also helps us communicate to our clients about the probable outcomes for each decision. We have five practice areas: work, play, age, live and learn. Over time, our practice areas have become specialties. Experience really matters for design and construction projects.
I love what I do. I love to see great outcomes for our clients who are willing to let us guide (caddy?) them through the “course” of a project. Interested in teeing up your next project? Looking for more birdies than bogeys? Please call and learn more about how we can help.