Discussion: omen

An excellent omen, and well realized. This is exactly how a good Homeric-style omen works. The gods send the eagle to show what is possible, and the hero then takes matters into his own hands. Anybody can just see an eagle, but knowing it is important and what to do about it is everything.

The very strange thing, and also perhaps Homeric-style though I am certainly no expert on such things, was that there was a fair amount thinking as I played the previous couple of holes that on the hole in question, the 8th, a shortish par 5 but uphill and one which I had reached in two only once before, anyway, a fair amount of thinking that today was going to be the day to go for it.

And in fact, it crossed my mind that today was a good day not just to reach the green but also to get an eagle. Not that I had any memory of the one I spotted flying over the Sunderland bridge. The omen was working without me being aware of it at all.

So anyway, perfect drive up the hill. Followed by an even more perfect 3-wood 20' from the hole. Followed by a putt that was dead center. Who would have thought.

And it wasn't until I was driving home, over the bridge, that I remembered the first eagle.

If I could just recreate the confidence I had on those three shots, my game would be a whole lot better. Maybe the (Greek) gods are sending me a message.

Or maybe just, as the laws of probability would predict, every once in a while you're going to hit three great shots in a row, and it's going to happen when you're playing a short par 5. Not to rain on your Homeric parade :-)

This is exactly why Phil is not going to get an eagle.

I flagged this as "best of" on attackpoint years ago and recently revisited. Charlie's reply to Phil still makes me laugh.

Phil still hasn't gotten an eagle.

Not in golf, anyway.

I rail at the scourge of magical thinking in my critical reasoning course, so it's a topic I take seriously. Many who claim they look at astrology columns (or look for omens) only for entertainment delude themselves. It infiltrates their lives in insidious ways. But Peter? Well, of all the questionable decisions I've watched him make over the years, I can't think of one (fortunately) that was influenced by an omen.