How You Gonna Have A Dream Come True?

I was eleven years old when my Dad bought our first record player. It was a monster Motorola box that was the latest in High Fidelity technology. It was the 1958 equivalent of today's entertainment center as it not only played three speeds of LPs, but had an AM and FM radio as well!

To get his record collection started, Dad bought four albums; "In the Wee Small hours of the Morning" by Sinatra, "Casaloma" by Glen Miller, the soundtrack from "South Pacific" and "Music to Strip By" by I don't remember who. This last one was a marvel of '58 marketing. The album cover had three strategically placed notches from which a G String was suspended. Try doing that with a MP3.

At any rate, the only way to escape Sinatra or Miller or Broadway or bump and grind jazz in my house, was to tune in the local rock and roll(which was a whole new thing) station on my transistor radio. As a result, I can pretty much sing/hum the music from all four albums.

The one that has stuck with me the most is South Pacific. If you've never seen the movie you should. It takes you back to a kinder, gentler, more innocent time like say, World War II. If you click on that link I'll guarantee you three minutes of laughs. The one song though that I can't get out of my head is Happy Talk. It's sung by the character Bloody Mary who is trying to hook up her daughter with a Navy Ensign. The part that sticks with me is:

You got to have a dream
If you don't got a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true

Today we would probably call Bloody Mary a life counselor for dispensing these words of wisdom. I mean you can take those three lines and apply them to any part of your life and they make sense. However, mostly those lines are banging around my brain as I approach the first tee.

Most instructors will tell you to visualize the shot. I'm thinking you ought to dream not only the shot, but your entire golf "career". What's your dream? Break 80? Shoot scratch golf? Win a tournament? Or that stupid dream we all have entertained at some point, find a way to go some kind of pro and make money doing the thing we love. If you've got a dream then each tee shot, each approach, each putt and each round is a step towards having your dream come true. In other words, the dreaming part of the game starts well before you set foot on the first tee.

I have a buddy who absolutely hates the par three 12th hole at our course. The cart path runs down the left side and then takes a hard left to the 13th. The path is marked with ropes starting about 20 yards from the 12th and these ropes of course are supported by stakes. I don't know how many times my buddy has pulled his shot left, hit the rock hard cart path, got an incredible run at the green only to hit one of the supporting stakes and go skittering over near the fence. "Why do they put stakes right in front of the damn green?" he screams. I remind him that they are not directly in front of the green and if he would just hit in the fairway, or better yet, just land on the green in regulation and not take a trip down the cart path,then he would take the stakes out of play.

He starts mumbling about the 12th hole as we are coming off the 11th. God forbid the pin placement is anywhere on the left side of the green. If it is we will be listening to pre-shot bitching, a moment of silence as he pulls his shot left, and then post-shot bitching. My buddy needs a dream.

So if there is a lesson to be learned it's that the biggest tool you have to a great game of golf can not be found in your bag. It's located between your ears. You got to have a dream. If you not got a dream. How you gonna have a dream come true?