GOLF is a GURU

What if the secret to a better life is hiding in your backswing? 

In this episode of the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Tim Windsor reflects on what golf can teach us about life, leadership, and the long, slow grind toward greatness. Golf isn’t just a sport—it’s a brutally honest mirror. It reveals how we handle pressure, how we fail, how we restart, and whether we have the guts to play with integrity when no one’s keeping score. Tim doesn’t hold back as he draws lessons from the fairway that cut deep into the soul of leadership and personal growth—lessons about managing what you can control, embracing the gift of the mulligan, and showing up when it hurts.

This episode isn’t for those chasing perfection—it’s for those courageous enough to pursue excellence amid the chaos. You’ll walk away rethinking the power of patience, the beauty of starting anew, and the essential need for short-game consistency in a long-game world. Whether you’re a leader, a parent, an entrepreneur, or simply a person navigating the rough terrain of life, this episode will challenge your mindset and encourage you to lead, live, and love with more grace, more grit, and more guts. 

Tim Windsor
the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast – Host & Guide
tim@uncommodified.com
https://uncommodified.com/
  
PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne & Kris MacQueen 
MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/

Transcript

PLEASE NOTE: UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast episode transcriptions are raw text files and have not been proofed or edited. They are what they are … Happy Reading.

 © UNCOMMODiFiED & TIM WINDSOR

[00:00:00] Hey, my friends. Welcome back to the Unmodified podcast, Tim Windsor here, and I'm looking forward to chatting with you again today. Last year, for the first time in almost 20 years, I was able to play golf without significant, or even any wrist or back pain. I started playing, the game when I was seven and by my teams, I actually was fairly good, good enough to win a junior tournament.

However, a back injury in my mid twenties made the game painful, nearly impossible, and then actually impossible for a number of years, so I walked away from it for decades. But now being able to play again, especially with my son and my grandson, it's reminded me how much this game has given me and how much wisdom is tucked inside of every round.

And that's what I wanna explore in this episode with you because golf like life it, it's not about perfection, that's for sure, not my game. It's about managing imperfection, learning from failure, recovering with grace, and relentlessly showing up to improve day after day, shot after shot. So let's unpack some of [00:01:00] the hidden wisdom that I see that golf offers us .

And this wisdom isn't just for leaders, but it's for anyone trying to navigate the complexity of relationships work, personal growth, and the pursuit of becoming better humans. See, golf teaches us about the tension. About the long game and the short game. That's one of the macro lessons in golf. You tee off thinking about distance, how far you can drive it, how straight you can drive it, how long you can drive it.

That's your vision. That's your big move towards the future. And in life and leadership. This is really the dream, the future that we're building towards. The short game, that's where the magic happens. And by the way, that's where my game falls apart most days. The delicate chip, the precise putt in life.

It's how you show up daily. It's the hard conversations you have, it's the habits you build. It's the little moments of consistency that actually make a big difference. A life or career built only on the vision, the big vision, the long game without [00:02:00] daily intentionality it's like a golfer at the end of the day who can crush their drive, but three putts every hole.

Now, whether you're leading a team, raising a family, or you're starting over at this period of your life doesn't matter, or you're just trying to improve yourself, you're gonna need both a long game and a short game, a long view and short steps that you can take. The lesson is simple, dream big, but put well.

Then there's the gift of something called the Mulligan. Now, if you've never played golf, you may not know this word. You don't know what it is. The gift of the mulligan it. It's the magical do-over that amateur golfers sometimes give themselves with their friends after a bad shot. Golfers, you know what I'm talking about?

Slic into the trees. Mulligan hit the water. Uh oh. Mulligan. Life doesn't hand out Mulligans officially. Let's, let's be honest, but it sure does offer us moments of grace if we're open to them when we screw up, say something wrong, miss an opportunity, hit our ball in the water, [00:03:00] metaphorically in our life that happens.

But what if we let ourselves take a mulligan? Not to pretend it didn't happen, but to try again with more, with some more humility and greater insight. See the world, you know, isn't always a forgiving place, but we can choose to be to, to ourselves, to others. In parenting, in partnerships, in the workplace, the key isn't avoiding failure, it's using it, resetting, learning, trying again.

In truth, the the most resilient people aren't the ones who avoid mistakes. They're the ones who build up the courage to say mulligan, and then swing again with greater purpose and effect. Now one of golf's most powerful metaphors for me is about focus. Controlling what you can and letting go of what you can't.

On the course, you're battling wind, terrain, uh, weather, factors you can't predict and surely can't command. This mirrors life beautifully. You can't control what other [00:04:00] people think or or what they say. You can't control the winds of change in your life or the market. And sometimes you feel like you can't even control your own circumstances, but you can control your mindset, your preparation, your response, and you can control your next move.

And just like in golf, when you focus, too much on your competitors, again, something you can't control or compare your life to others, you lose your center. The wisest golfers understand that you must play the course, not other players. The wisest people, they compare themselves to better versions of themselves.

That's who they compare to the people they wanna be rather than focus on others, they focus on their values and they do their best, and they do what's right in front of them. Now, golf can be a rather slow game. It takes many hours to play. It demands patience.

And if you're a lot like me, patience doesn't always come naturally, but life. Life is also a game of patient persistence. [00:05:00] Now we do want fast fixes. We want quick wins. We want ins, instant result, but anything worth doing, relationships, careers, health, partnering, parenting growth takes time. Now whether you are trying to get better at something, rebuild something broken, or reinvent yourself.

Progress will always feel painfully slow at times, and yet that's where the real work happens. Just like improving your golf game requires thousands of swings. Real change in your life requires daily commitment over years. So when progress feels not existence, remember this, keep swinging, keep showing up.

Trust the slow grind. Finally, golf is also a game of integrity, and it teaches us a lot about this. You're your own referee In golf, you, you count your own strokes, and oftentimes no one's watching you. And surely when you're in the trees, no one's watching you from behind. A tree in the fairway and life too asks the same questions of us, [00:06:00] the same.

You're gonna have to ask yourself on the golf course. When you're there and no one's watching, who are you? Integrity isn't just about following the rules, it's about being consistent, even when it's hard or unseen. It's about owning your mistake. It's about choosing honesty when it costs you, and it's about aligning your actions with your values, especially when it's inconvenient for you.

Now, whether you're a leader, a parent, a partner, a friend, or just trying to become a better version of herself, integrity is the invisible thread that holds it all together. As we wrap this up, let me, let me leave you with this. Golf, like life is messy at times. It's unpredictable. It can be brutal and beautiful all in the same round, and that's what makes it real.

In golf, like in life, you'll find the rough, you'll land in the bunker, you'll lose balls and question, why are you even playing the game at times? But the growth is in the mess. The wisdom is in the struggle and excellence, not perfection is enhanced when [00:07:00] you hit thousands of practice balls. Don't wait for the perfect conditions.

They, they'll never come. Just take your shot and keep swinging In the end, whether you're on a course or you're in the chaos of life, it's not about a perfect scorecard. It's about how you played. Did you play with integrity? Did you play with patience? Did you play with grace? And knowing that it's hard to play if you don't book a time, show up, step onto the tee box, take a swing and have some fun while you're doing it.

Thanks for listening. Go out and play golf or any other sport that you love. It's good for you. It's good for your mental health. It's good for your physical health stand commodified. Cheers.