One of my favourite scenes in Caddyshack is when Bill Murray describes, with a pitchfork in his hand, the occasion he caddied for the Dalai Lama – “The flowing robes… Striking.” His fabrication of the long-hitting Lama probably stems from some hallucinatory dream induced by the special “grass” he cultivates.
I watched the film (again) the other day and the scene made me remember a weird golfing dream I had some years ago. It was while I was at university in St Andrews. Some sort of summit was held in town which was attended by Nelson Mandela – he met the Commonwealth leaders, I think.
Anyway, I got a gig caddying for Mandela in a big-money match around the Old Course against Tony Blair. Mandela was playing a blinder – four-up at the turn, and Tony couldn’t buy a putt. It was thrilling stuff, but then I lost Mandela’s clubs when I went for a pee in the gorse bushes.
I began running around frantically trying to find them, but they had totally vanished. The great South African was very good about the whole thing and assured me they’d turn up soon, I just needed to be patient. I can’t remember what happened after that. I think I woke up sweating.
I’m always having dreams about golf, and thought I’d like to know what they might be trying to tell me. I contacted Stephen Smith – Chief Psychologist and Chair of The Division of Sport & Exercise Psychologists at the British Psychological Society (who is also a fellow St Andrews graduate) to help. Here’s a selection of the dreams (plus one of my colleague’s) and Stephen’s possible explanations. At the end, he might just clear up that Mandela one too…
1. Teeing off woes
But I can’t get a backswing!
(Image credit: Kevin Murray)
The dream
This is a recurring dream I have. I’m standing on the first tee and excited at the prospect of playing. Generally, people are watching or it’s an important competition. My playing partners tee off happily enough and then it’s my turn. I go to the teeing area and suddenly there’s some sort of obstruction. There’s a bush behind me and I can’t get a backswing, or there’s a low wall just in front that I can’t see any way of getting up and over in time.
Try as I might, I can’t find a spot to tee it up where I’m not impeded. The crowds, officials and…
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