I Wish I Would Have Had More Fun

When I was 12-years-old, the Seton Hall women’s golf team came out to Applecross CC (one of my home courses growing up) to play with me and two other junior girl golfers who had aspirations of playing college golf. One of the players on the team, Sammie Staut, was one of Eric’s students. They arranged to have the team come out and play a round of golf with us one day in the spring in between tournaments.

I played with three or four girls on the team. I remember we played a scramble format type round, and the coach would be around checking in on us and seeing how we were doing.

I remember asking the one player, Cassidy, who was a junior at the time, what advice she would give to her 12-year-old self. She replied with this:

“I wish I would have had more fun. I wish I didn’t take it so seriously all the time.”

At the time, I didn’t really understand it. Innocence of a 12-year-old protected me from the reality that would come. When you are that age, of course you are like “Well duh, of course I want to always have fun. Why aren’t you having fun?”

The reality that came was life. Life made it less fun, people that I encountered and thought I could trust but betrayed that trust made it less fun, outside nonsense can make golf less fun. Your maturity can make golf less fun.

I think the reason why kids have more fun is because they don’t fear failure. As you grow older, you become more aware of yourself and your surroundings, thus contributing to this fear of failure. Nothing sucks the fun out of something more than the fear of failing.

At 20-years-old, I fully understand now what she was getting at. There are days I do wish I had more fun with golf growing up. You think at 12 that your golf career is eons from being over. College is so far off, I mean you aren’t even in high school yet. You have hardly thought about where you would even want to play college golf. At that time I was trying to decide what high school I might want to go to. The thought of golf eventually being over was never something that crossed my mind. That is the innocence of a 12-year-old right there.

Here’s my advice. Unless you are in college or about to start college, you probably won’t fully understand what it means to wish you had more fun. Enjoy every single moment while you can. That is something I have really made an effort to do this year because I know this time next year my competitive days are numbered. Each tournament means more. Each practice means more. Everything means more because it is almost over.

Have fun while you have it. Don’t take everything so seriously. Enjoy all of it, even the difficult moments. There will come a day that you will look back and miss every part of it, including the challenges and struggles of it.