“Why do people play golf? Because it’s hard. You always think you can do better next time.” -Pete Dye via Jeff Mingay on the @fried_egg_golf podcast.
There’s something compulsive about a challenge. The desire to tame it results in an uncontrollable urge that keeps us coming back over and over again. Each and every day is a new opportunity to summit the mountain.
Honestly, I think it’s a big part of why we wake up every day. It’s the call to do something more, something grand. The chance to experience this crazy thing we call life, in a bigger, bolder way, each and every new day.
It’s the realization that the only thing that holds us back are the cages we build in our minds, and the knowledge to know that we’re capable of abolishing them. It’s the freedom to feel that anything is possible.
Life, without a doubt, has the best knowledge of how to kick your ass, but it’s the challenge that makes us appreciate the end goal, for if it was easy, we’d all get bored and forget about it.
It’s the struggle that gives us the humility to grind, the ethic to excel. It showcases our courage, the strength and tenacity to keep climbing, and it’s what causes the cream to rise to the top.
Pete Dye knew this and he created courses to challenge even the greatest golfers, and taught some of today’s greatest architects. He knew that nothing worth having ever comes easy and it shows whenever anyone speaks of his work.
While I’ve not yet had the chance to play one of his designs, I know it’s high up on the list of reasons I get up in the morning. And if I overcome it, I’ll know it was truly an achievement. Because the sweet isn’t as sweet if you’ve never tasted the sour.