One of the classic non-golfer criticisms about golf is that it is a “good walk spoiled” by chasing around a little white ball.

People who understand the zen of golf know that the ball as outcome is absolutely what the game is not about. It’s about practicing focus and staying in the present - a challenge in any situation designed around the seduction of outcome.

So it was this morning, taking off in the dark after the required dose of sitting meditation and yoga, drinking in a pristine sun rising from cool chirps and dew, where focus and presence and non-attachment to outcome yielded seamless pars on the last 3 holes.

An absolutely gorgeous, crystal blue sky day here today, and certainly a good one to spend time at Pleasant Valley that sports probably the most beautiful and tough three finishing holes on any regional course in the Ohio’s Northeast.

I usually reserve enjoying the view for when I play my best, with today as an exception. I allowed myself to enjoy the day as if I were playing perfect golf. The Tao of golf works. I not only enjoyed things as much as they could be, I played better than I would if I were doing my usual striving for elusive perfection. A good lesson that postponing joy is always a bad course strategy.

According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, US golf equipment sales in 2004 rose 3% to $2.5 billion. In my minority view that golf occurs in the mind rather than in the equipment, I’ve somehow managed to resist the songs of the golf sirens, singing of the “high performance” clubs and balls now proliferating sales. The NY Times on the front page today reports that in spite of this growth, both amateur and professional golf scores have stayed virtually the same over the past ten years. My father and his friends used to joke when I was a kid learning that it’s “all in the shoes.”

The article suggests that people are practicing less, while expecting the equipment to substitute for the immeasurable value of practice. If peak experience was about the equipment rather than about the mind, and golfers nationwide took up zazen (sitting meditation), they’d encounter the usual challenges of meditation and would likely run out to buy the latest in bigger, better cushions guaranteeing “at least 30 more yards of enlightenment.”

First season’s round of golf yesterday. I have two kinds of friends when it comes to golf. Those who can’t believe I would spend time on such a thing and those who can’t believe I wouldn’t spend more time with it.

I really don’t care either way. Golf, like everything else in life, is certainly not for everybody. I would never recommend it any more than I would recommend, let’s say, eating or breathing.

These days, it never ceases to amaze me how the game is constant practice in bringing attention back to the moment. Good shots and bad have the same way of eclipsing the here and now until we remember to return here, now. What I like about the game is that the feedback on how well we stay in the present is totally dependable. When we’re not present, we miss the next shot. That simple. And if we want to linger in what should have happened, we get to miss the next one just as well.

I don’t know. Is that a metaphor for life or what? To bring our attention to the present no matter how miserable or miraculous the last moment was. Maybe that’s why the relentless teacher of golf usually occurs in the most beautiful, bucolic landscapes on the planet - so that we have ample opportunity to be present when we are!