That Little Dance You Do

Its a two foot putt down hill with a little left break and there are four skins in you drain it. On the practice green you'd be dropping these all day long. But here there are three sets of eyes watching, three brains sending out negative telepathic signals. You start calculating how much you will win; start projecting out to the remaining holes and predicting which of those you have a shot at. You focus on future events rather than the one at hand.

And then it starts. You feel it in your arms first as the muscles tighten. Then it creeps into your hands and your knuckles turn white from the death grip on the shaft. Your legs don't feel balanced. And the questions start. How far back do I take it? How much pace on the ball? Should I baby it in and not risk blowing past the hole? Am I taking too much time?

So you hit it.

It trickles down on a line right of the hole and at the last millisecond cuts left and drops in.

Your arms go up, a leg goes up, and you hop around. It's that little dance you do.

Nobody teaches you this. That little dance is a sub primal instinct that has been inside man since the dawn of time. If you look for it you can see it on every golf course. Three hundred pounders in plaid are doing their best imitation of ballet dancers on drugs. Generally, the poorer the golf skills the longer the dance.

Somebody with better video editing skills than I have is missing out on a great viral clip.