A shot that goes in the cup is pure luck, but a shot to within two feet of the flag is skill.
Ben HoganRead
Golf is not a game of good shots. It's a game of bad shots.
Interpretation
Golf is about managing failures rather than just celebrating successes.
Ben Hoganβs quote highlights the essence of golf, emphasizing that the sport is more about how players handle their mistakes than the perfection of their successful shots. It reflects the importance of resilience and recovery in both golf and life, teaching that one must learn to cope with the inevitable failures to improve and succeed.
In practice
In a motivational speech about perseverance, one could quote Ben Hogan to illustrate how we can learn from our mistakes.
A shot that goes in the cup is pure luck, but a shot to within two feet of the flag is skill.
As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.
You only hit a straight ball by accident. The ball is going to move right or left every time you hit it, so you had better make it go one way or the other.
I see no reason that a golf course cannot be played in 18 birdies. Just because no one has ever done that doesn't mean it can't be done.
Every day that you don't practice is one day longer before you achieve greatness
Every day you miss playing or practicing is one day longer it takes to be good.
Rugby is a hooligans game played by gentlemen.
I have loved football as an almost mythic game since I was in the fourth grade. To me, the game wasn't even grounded in reality. The uniform turned you into a warrior. Being on a team, the mythology of physical combat, the struggle against the elements, the narrative of the game.
I have observed that baseball is not unlike war, and when you get right down to it, we batters are the heavy artillery.
There's a pride in representing your country on a stage like the sport of wrestling, which I've done since I was five years old. There's nothing that can deter me other than my own decision to leave the sport.
Aw, everybody knows that game, the day I hit the homer off ole Charlie Root there in Wrigley Field, the day October first, the third game of that thirty-two World Series. But right now I want to settle all arguments. I didn't exactly point to any spot, like the flagpole. Anyway, I didn't mean to, I just sorta waved at the whole fence, but that was foolish enough. All I wanted to do was give that thing a ride... outta the park... anywhere.
I treat every race the same. We all wanted to swim fast today and give something back to the crowd.
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