The enjoyment versus achievement dilemma is a common one in this game. Many players, for instance, will pursue success so aggressively and persistently, it's easy to about the thing that probably got them into golf in the first place; fun.
Gemma Batty, the newly crowned Scottish Women’s Amateur champion, is one such player who has reignited her passion for this Royal & Ancient pursuit by stepping back from the all-consuming aspects of it.
The 24-year-old from Moffat, who claimed the national title on the final green at Elie on Saturday where her final opponent, Gabrielle Macdonald, trundled her approach shot out of bounds on the 18th, did harbour professional ambitions at one point but the Stirling University student is much happier now that she has decided to embrace golf as her “glorified hobby” and remain a career amateur.
"It was around January, February last year when I was going through a rough spell,” reflected Leeds-born Batty, who has now won national matchplay crowns on both sides of the border. “I wouldn't say I had fallen out of love with the game but I wasn't enjoying it as much as I should have been.
"I decided then that I'd been putting myself under too much pressure playing golf and that's when I started to look at scholarship schemes. I knew that the opportunity to do something like that was a better option, especially as in the ladies' professional game at the moment you are struggling to make a living unless you go to America.
"I didn't want to do that. I want to have a home, I want to have children, I want to have a nice career. I'm happy with the decision I've made and I will come and play in the Scottish Women's Championship as long as I can.
"All the players in the Scottish Golf squad this year have been told to think of one word and my one was ‘enjoyment’. David Patrick, my coach, texted me on the eve of the final and it simply said, 'enjoyment'.”
Batty certainly savoured her triumph at the weekend although an enjoyable, closely fought final did end amid forlorn anti-climax as Macdonald’s approach bobbled into the car park which handed her opponent a one hole win.
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