Hitting a golf ball is a daunting task, especially off the first tee. Actually any tee, regardless if it’s onto a manicured fairway, over a watery hazard or a bottomless crevasse. Golf is hard. Quiet on the tee, please.
Many vital element are required, the most exaggerated of all could be the importance of calm, stillness and quiet.
The situation must be right to hit a straight tee shot. No lint on the sweater sleeve, nothing in the field of vision; leaves, twigs, and the like. Pity the insect interested in a perched golf ball. And no birds chirping, no nearby mowers within earshot or planes overhead. Not to mention the other man-made sounds of jingling pocket change or dropped clubs.
Why is quiet so important, when the noise level is so high inside the heads of most golfers? What if we teed off next to a tire repair shop or over a marching band? Could that offer enough of a distraction to allow a free-flowing swing? We will never know. Quiet on the tee, please.
As we play on, we all have the prerogative on the tee box to step away, back off the shot and restart our pre-swing routine, using helpful tools however ridiculous they may seem to anybody else.