Outside Reading - Week 2, Post B

A Golfer's Life by Arnold Palmer


Dear Arnold,

What an accomplishment for you to have won the Southern Conference Championship. It is good to know that all of the junior tournaments that you played in prior to that meant something in the long run. They gave you tournament experience and taught you how to win graciously and lose in the same manner. Harvie Ward was definitely a difficult opponent to play. There were some tournaments that you played in that did not have a good outcome for you, but that didn't stop you from trying, and they gave you valuable experiences to have under your belt. In my eyes another thing that helped you to do well in the Southern Championship was the game that you created for yourself to play on the fairways of Latrobe. Playing the greats like Ben Hogan in your head and Babe Didrikson on the course are no match for another golfer from the Southern Conference. It is in playing those games and tournaments that you learned to deal with the pressure of a tight match; for example the entire outcome of a match coming down to one birdie putt on the eighteenth green. It is also in those tournaments that you make mistakes and learn from them, like trying to carry your ball over some water that you know you can't, thinking to yourself "maybe this one time I will hit it far enough." Other mistakes like throwing your club out of anger take only once for a lesson to be learned from them. Now that you have been through all of that, you can look back and see the good in all of those bad situations.

From an aspiring golfer,
Monika Buska