How the project started
The road to the “Golf Around the World” decision has been long!
It started with a conversation I had with one of our clients. His name is Joep van Maaren, he is from the Netherlands, has an HR consultancy business and uses Garuda’s HR tools.
Apart from the HR-business, we have two other interests in common. We can spend hours exchanging ideas and opinions about the purpose of life, what matters most to the direction and happiness of the life we live? Or more philosophical; do we humans have a free will?
The other common interest is golf. What is it that is so compelling about playing golf?
- The nature,
- the competition,
- the expectations of a perfect round in which everything falls into place, where we are in the “Zone”, condition that I describe as being in our mental sweet spot.
- Or, is it perhaps the social side of the game where we talk about this and that, joke, tease and praise each other during the game, and then meet in the clubhouse over a beer. Pleased about the exercise, the fresh air and the game that has taken our mind off some of the more serious problems of everyday life?
Alternatively, is it the competitive gene that drives us because, during the game, the production of testosterone and adrenaline make us feel good when we are successful? However, also the gene that makes the noradrenaline take over, when we are heading for a bad score. The gene that makes us frustrated, depressed, furious and maybe a little aggressive. I mean, I hate golf – when shall we play again?
Without knowing it, I started this Golf around the World project 6-7 years ago, the day where Joep asked me this question:
“Finn, what would you do if you didn’t have your company. If you were completely free from thinking about the development and research, if you had no projects, no meetings and no responsibility for the day-to-day or long-term business. Everything runs just fine and there is no need for you, at least not for a year or two. What would you do?”
Honestly, I have not experienced any need to think in that direction. I have always been happy with my work. Apart from the bureaucracy associated with running a company and the pressures there are to keep a grip on the finances, most of it has been a very positive challenge. When you succeed, you forget about all the worries. So, no, I was fine. Thank you Joep, why should I change that?
I started playing golf too late to be really good. However, I have always played on one of our division teams. First as a senior, and later with age, on the veteran team. The team performed well this year and got to the final, competing for the Danish team championship. Which we won. An amazing feeling, I can tell. It is me number 3 from the left on the picture.
However, young or old, win or lose, golf is the only sport I know of where you can keep fit, experience great joy and keep using your competitive gene, and have a lot of fun. Statistics show that active golfers, on average, lives 5 years longer than non-golfers.
It is probably not just about staying physically fit, but also the joy that comes from playing the game. It is about the mental well-being. There is nothing more life-prolonging than a good laugh. So, play a little more golf and learn to laugh at your own miserable strokes. A golfer without a sense of humor will never be a happy golfer.
Research shows that there is something to be said for this. Some golfers die earlier than others or stop playing golf perhaps because they could not laugh at their own mistakes, ill-considered decisions and/or uncontrolled temper.
