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Human beings have free will. We get to choose between Sugar Pops or oatmeal for breakfast. We determine the route we take to work and the type of car we drive. From sun up to sundown, we are faced with choices.Because of scarcity of time and money — and space in our stomachs — we simply cannot do, buy, or eat everything we want to. We are forced to make trade-offs.The same holds true during a round of golf. Starting on the very first tee, golfers must weigh the trade-offs and decide a course of action. Often these choices are characterized as “risk and reward.”As in real life, the decisions we make on the golf course are heavily shaped by our past experiences. In the words of the great orator, President G.W. Bush, “Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again!”To put this into golf context, let’s look how I decide what club to use on the first hole at Valley Gardens. It is a 246-yard par 4 with a well-guarded green.When I first played the hole, like most golfers, the possibility of hitting it onto the putting surface — and maybe in the hole — was too much to resist, and I attempted to drive the green. My ball ended up in the right rough, leaving me a very difficult second shot over the greenside bunker. The hole fooled me.I’d like to say I learned my lesson after the first try, but my ego prevailed, and in subsequent rounds, I continued to go for the green. Occasionally, I’d hit a good one and make a birdie or an easy par, but more often tee shots were finding greenside bunkers and the rough.Finally, I realized that choosing to go for the green was like buying a lottery scratcher — it’s fun, sometimes you win, but it’s no way to make a living.There is an old saying in golf that goes, “The middle of the fairway is a lonely place.” It holds true because golfers almost always make the decision to go for distance over accuracy, and, despite President Bush’s advice to the contrary, get fooled again and again.Even though I am fully capable of hitting the green, I now choose to use a 7 iron off the first tee. Yes, the possibility of making a hole-in-one no longer exists, but neither does the possibility of a short-sided second shot, and that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make. Steve, Fernando and Luis spend all that time mowing and maintaining the fairway, the least I can do is use it — and replace my divots.Golf has a way of making everyone — even the world’s best players — look foolish sometimes. That is the nature of the game. But don’t let your decisions make the game any harder than it needs to be. Whether on the tee or from behind a tree, you have the free will to decide your course of action. You can decide to play the lotto, attempting the improbable, or you can play it safe, find the short grass, and shoot lower scores.-Bob Chase is a Professional Golf Instructor and the Director of Golf at Valley Gardens Golf Course in Scotts Valley. He previously worked as an Assistant Golf Professional at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz. He has a BA in Political Science from UC San Diego and is pursuing an MBA from Santa Clara University. He lives with his wife, Mary, in Ben Lomond.

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Middle and high schools in Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley will be honored with the Gold Ribbon Award, after successfully demonstrating academic programs that benefit education.