Satisfaction or frustration

The mood of amateur golf players is ambivalent. The opposite sensations of success or error, satisfaction or dejection, coexist latently before executing each shot and only one of them, usually the second, manifests abruptly after hitting the ball, profiling the player’s gesture.

This ambivalence came from from the very perverse nature of the act of hitting the ball.

Making such an unnatural move correctly, right with the face of the club square on the ball at the right time and sending the ball to the intended target, is so rare that when it is achieved, it has a certain heroic halo. But if it’s not achieved, it’s very distressing.

A good shot requires so much preparation and is so difficult and complex for most, that the result of the swing can only produce intense success or frustration.

However, this succession of contradictory emotions is the same engine of the game. The feeling of every shot motivates the next, the impression of each game feeds the next. And it’s about this very impulse of the game heading toward a smart improvement, so that satisfaction cancels out frustration.