Decision making can align stars with your hockey team

Golf and gardening are two popular pastimes for people of my age – and I am fortunate enough to be able to combine both. Interspersed with the normal challenge of getting the little white ball up the fairway, onto the green and into the hole, I am also able to find plenty of time for clearing long grass, trimming hedges, pruning the odd flower and skillfully, albeit accidentally, removing awkwardly-placed branches.

Whilst doing far more gardening than usual on the golf course, my patient partner (and probably not coincidentally) told me a story about a friend of his that had recently played a round with his golf pro. Apparently the expert guidance had enabled this bloke to get round his local course in a full 13 strokes less than his normally chunky handicap. The most remarkable part of the story though was that the improvement had nothing to do with the pro fixing his swing, short game or putting. In fact, my friend told me all the golf pro had done was stop the player when he was about to hit a shot and show him a better, less risky option.