Choices count big in golf and life

If we think about it the game of golf is played in such a way that, know it or not, we are forced to make choices and decisions at every point in our round. We decide what club to hit, what point to aim at, what line and speed to hit our putts, even what attitude to maintain throughout the day.

We may think those choices happen by default, but truthfully, they happen by conscious, and sometimes sub-conscious action. Sometimes we become aware of competing choices – try to carry the pond or lay-up – and sometimes we operate on autopilot and don’t realize that we have several options.

When it comes to choices, I have often thought of the movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” where Jones and his adversary finally find themselves inside the temple and come face-to-face with the millennium-aged Sir Arthur and a table filled with different chalices, all of which might be the Holy Grail and might hold the magic elixir of everlasting life.

Jones’ treacherous enemy picked up the most ostentatious and be-jeweled challis, drank from it, and was instantly vaporized. Whereupon Sir Arthur, unmoved, uttered, “He chose poorly.” I say that when I pick the wrong iron.

I see a lot of golfers make decisions by not thinking much at all. I also see some anal golfers spend way too long pondering, obsessing, stewing and ultimately failing to make the right choice at all.

I remember a corporate mentor of mine years ago saying, “You know, I’d rather be approximately right than precisely wrong.” It’s good advice.

In golf I would rather be a little long than a little short. A little long will still be on the green; but a little short usually means off the green and a little spot of trouble. I would rather aim for the fat of the green and be safe than go flag-hunting and wind up in the water.

My choices are based on probabilities. If you find yourself in a precarious position without much of a shot, you need to quickly size up the situation and realize that it’s most probable that you won’t pull off the one-in-a-hundred shot, but that you will probably have a chance to save par or bogey if you lay up to a good spot.

One of the cardinal rules they play by in the U.S. Open has to do with awkward lies of the golf ball and troublesome situations. The intelligent competitors know very well that when bad fortune (or bad play) strikes they need to take their medicine and limit the damage as best they can.

Sometimes it is a choice of taking a penalty drop, or playing well away from a hazard, or trying to save bogey, which as U.S. Open veterans know, is sometimes an acceptable score.

In some cases, we are challenged to make our best choices in very big matters. One of the best examples recently is PGA Tour player Ben Griffin. Griffin attended East Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina where he won two individual state championships. He then went on to play college golf at the University of North Carolina, winning three tournaments and being named a two-time (honorable mention) All-American.

Griffin turned professional in 2018, first playing on the PGA Canadian Tour, and then to the Korn-Ferry Tour in 2019, and then the PGA Tour Latinoamerica for part of 2020, cut short by the pandemic. Unhappy with his golf game Griffin stepped away from golf for most of 2021 and worked as a loan officer for a mortgage group in North Carolina. 

He chose to return to tour golf in 2022, finally playing well enough to earn his PGA Tour card for 2023. His choice to return to golf was rewarded with a win at the Zurich Classic (with partner Andrew Novak) in April 2025, and a win at the Charles Schwab Challenge in May 2025. He was then picked for the Ryder Cup team.

On Nov. 9, Griffin won the World Wide Technology Championship in Utah, his third win in 2025. His choice to return to professional golf was a good one.