The title makes it sound fancy but its not. I guess if I was a pro golfer a sabbatical might be the right word but I have decided to take a year out from playing golf.
I didnt make the decision lightly and I thought long and hard about it but this last year I have gone from absolutely loving golf to finding it a massive chore. I no longer thrived when out practicing and was not wanting to constantly better myself in different aspects of the game. I had no drive to try and compete for a place in the golf team. In stark contrast to the previous years when I was desperate to make the team and get the highest up the rankings and always trying to make the team which played in the Inter Club. Something I never managed to achieve but not achieving it made me want to more and made me want to practice. That was until last year.
With my asthma being more restrictive I was using a buggy to play a round of golf and really not enjoying it. On the days the weather was good I would try to walk and would end up coming off after 9 holes through sheer exhaustion and the inability to breathe properly. It was depressing me as golf was something I enjoyed so much but I was slowly starting to hate it. I would see other people some more than 40 years older than me walk round the course and come in and be ok whereas I would be in a heap after just 9 holes. I would use a buggy but even then I found the effort of swinging the club painful on my chest and intercostal muscles which felt in a permanent tear. Imagine running with a pulled quad this was what my chest felt like each time I swung.
The season just passed I handed 3 cards in for my handicap- just enough to keep my handicap compared to the 30+ I handed in the year before. It is polar opposites between the 2 seasons. I found myself not putting golf at the fore front of everything. I used to miss things so I could play golf but would find I would mis golf to do other things last year. It was as though everything had reversed. I did not intend on doing it. It just happened.
For the sake of my golfing future I decided it was best to have a wee break. I didnt want to end up hating the game I loved and had such a passion for and was not too bad at. Next season in 2017 I will be back on the course and able to walk the course like I used to. I will be able to love the game again and enjoy playing it and look back on this year out as a learning curve and a spring board to better health. Heres hoping. Soon this will be me again:
ANONYMOUS-ASTHMA 