Fighting the Jet Lag with Golf Hole-in-One

Who hasn't experienced it? After a 16-hour flight, sleeping at odd times, extended fatigue, keeping awake and feeling hungry when others are sleeping! All these are the signs of jet lag. Flying across the time zones gives you jet lag. How to overcome? It takes its own time. May last up to one week. Any other way to fight the jet lag. If you are a golfer, you can overcome the jet lag from day-1! How? Read on.

Ghumakkad recently travelled from India to USA. After arrival in California in the forenoon, I avoided sleeping till dinner time. First night was comfortable. Next day around lunch when it was late night in India, the body wanted to sleep. We decided instead to go golfing in the afternoon. It yielded positive results. Overcame sleepiness till dinner again. The third day went well till noon when once again the body clock wanted sleep. Another round of golf and we overcame the jet lag. So, if you are a golfer just play two rounds of golf within the first two three days and you will overcome the jet lag. If not a golfer, go on a hike or a walk or a run to fight the jet lag.

Few months back we had travelled to New Zealand for the Ironman event. Again it was a long journey across the time zones. Swimming, hiking and golf together helped us to overcome the jet lag successfully. Compare the two pictures below.

Beer Cart

Las Positas Golf Club, a public course in Livermore, California surprised us during the golf round yesterday. A golf cart with beer and other drinks went from hole to hole. Beer while teeing off? Well, see the picture.

Hole-In-One!

Once you have overcome the jet lag, you continue golfing. On the 4th day after arriving in California, we went golfing again. This time at another public course named Pleasanton Golf Center. So well maintained. Lush green fairways. Tight nine-hole course located inside a race course. I hit a hole-in-one on 138-yard Hole No. 8 using a 5 hybrid. 

The green is located across a hungry pond just 30 yards ahead of the water hazard. The ball landed short of the green, bounced up and curled right into the cup. Sadly, there was no gallery to applaud except my paying partner Surendra Bhargava. It was my first ever hole-in-one in 36 years of my golfing life! Hiwever, the hole-in-one got reported in East Bay Times published by Mercury News. Sharing the newspaper clippings below:

Sharing below few more pictures of the picturesque  Pleasanton Golf course.

Look at the bunkers so well kept at a public course!

So that is the power of golfing. It can even beat the jet lag!

Our previous story titled 'Golfing With Grandson In California' can be accessed here.

Memories of Pleasanton Golf Centre and my hole-in-one will be etched forever.

Thanks for browsing.

  - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Pleasanton/ 28th July 2025.

#golf #jetlag #holeinone #california #navyveteran #pleasantongolfcenter #laspositasgolfclub #ghumakkadharsh #ghumakkadhb 

Golf and Yoga

Golf and Yoga

Intrigued by the title? Well, this has been my theory that golf is very much like yoga योग . My golfing partners have heard it from me many times. But you may ask 'How is Golf like Yoga' or vice versa?

Yoga is all about concentration and control of your mind or the inner self. And so is golf.

For those of us who love golf, will vouch that golf is a mind game. The day you can keep your mind under check, you will keep your scores low. But the day you let go of your mind on the golf course (and give up saying 'it is not my day' or some such excuse), you hit a 'century'. For non-golfers, hitting a century i.e. returning a card of  '100', is an extremely poor score for amateur golfers like me. Other golfers reading the blog will most likely echo the sentiment!

OK, yoga is about the mind. What else is Yoga? Bhagwad Gita भगवत गीता says Yoga is the journey of the self...


Another take on yoga is that it is 99% practice and 1% theory. And so is Golf. Practice and more practice is the only way to keep your scores low and maintain the handicap.


Talking of keeping your cool while playing golf- the new Masters Champion Jordan Spieth is a live example. This 21-year old golfer set many a record last week in Augusta Masters Tournament 2015.
 

Jordan plays a superb game. But he also makes mistakes. He also drove his tee-shots into the trees or roughs. But it was his ability to remain cool and stoic in such situations, which gave him the inner strength to recover.He was a picture of concentration whether lining up for a putt or driving off the tee box while thousands of eyes were watching.



Talking of concentration, we all need it in our lives. Whether at work or golfing or mowing the fairways in a golf course, concentration does it. See the picture of Augusta Golf Course below.




So, take up yoga if you wish to achieve better mind control in your life. Whether you play golf or not does not matter. But if you are a golfer, remember golf and yoga are alike. Both require concentration and mind control.

My yoga practitioner friends may say yoga is much more than mind control. No issues with that.

Hope you enjoyed the likeness between yoga and golf. The previous post on golf can be browsed by clicking the link below:
Why I love Golfing? 

I would like to close with a quote from Gautam Buddha:



Have a great day!
Bye till the next post,

     - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 13th April 2015


Note: Copyrighted pictures of Masters 2015 Championship and Jordan Speith from the net are gratefully acknowledged.