The Meaning of a Family Golf Trip
3 Lessons from Sporting Vacations to help bring the meaning out of physical activity
Why sports trips?
Most people want to take a vacation to escape but there are some who like to find challenge and community through vacations.
As a PhD in sport history and philosophy I know how movement creates meaning in our lives. It’s not just about moving our bodies but what that movement does for our spirits. Planning a trip around a race, a series of competitions, or outside adventure is a great way to orient activity and meaning through motion into our lives.
If you have a trip planned around something physical you’ll spend a lot of your time making sure you’re ready when the time comes
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Our Golf Trip
Every year my dad and I, along with our close family friends, go on a 3 day golf trip to kick off the summer season.
It’s a tradition that’s almost 25 years old. It started with a group of his friends travelling south to Cincinnati to get some early golf and warmth. Over time it’s grown into an annual tradition with a namesake, trophy jacket, ritual of practices, and magical history of its own.
I just returned from this year’s trip and have thought hard about why this trip means so much to me and my dad and why I look forward to it every year.
Lesson 1: Competition is healthy fun
As we age it’s important to have competition that is fun, fair, and ferocious.
Golf is a sport where no matter the skill or age we can all compete against each other. There’s an algorithm and formula we use to ‘fairly’ determine who wins the trophy after 3 rounds of golf. The trophy itself is an oversized ugly sports blazer that the winner adorns with pride.
We have a competition and prize but we play in a way that’s fun for everyone.
Lesson 2: Movement is the bond
Ultimately it’s not about who wins but about being out on the course together striving for our best selves.
Golf gives us the chance to have great shots during bad rounds. It lets us shoot for our best rounds ever and to challenge difficult holes together with great fun and adventure. When we all hit a difficult fairway or all find the water hazard we share something special together that only movement can bring about.
The mutual struggle on the golf course creates the environment where we can share something greater than just a match.
Lesson 3: Stories provide the magic
Each round, each shot, each year, becomes a moment in time to stack alongside the countless other memories we’ve made on this annual trip.
After we play our rounds and gather all together at the clubhouse we discuss what happened that day and how it reminds us of other stories from previous years. Sometimes it’s a great shot, other times a funny tale about a sticky situation one of the group members found themselves in. But the tiredness from the round brings us back into those past memories, renewing the old stories with fresh life.
We move so that we can experience and then remember them together.
Advice: Start your own trip
All of these elements make the trip special for our group, you can create something like this for your family and community.
Find an activity that will challenge everyone in the group. Make a fun competition out of it that engages people’s ambition but also plays into the fun of the trip. Let the movement of the trip create the bonds and memories and you’ll be dreaming of next year’s adventures.
Sports are about community, challenge, and camaraderie and trips like this help us realise these values in our lives