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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the unique connection the game of golf bridges between parents and their children. Perhaps this has been on my mind because I’m a new father, and I’m looking forward to the day when I can take my daughter to the driving range to hit some balls or to the course to play a round.

Besides being the greatest game of all time – challenging your skill, patience and discipline – golf creates an atmosphere and an environment conducive to creating that quality time that everyone says they don’t get enough of with their children.

Think about it: An average round takes about four to five hours, and only a short time is spent actually hitting the ball. The rest of the time – especially if you’re with your daughter or son – can be spent enjoying the day at a leisurely pace without any major distractions. And with that comes many natural openings for communication because the pace is not frantic like it is so often at work and home.

Golf allows you the opportunity to get to know one another better while focusing on the task at hand – playing the game at your best level. Not many other sports provide this type of parent-child quality time. In basketball, football and baseball, parents usually are observers rather than participants. Golf puts you at the same level.

I sometimes think about what it would have been like for me as a youngster to have had a father, uncle or other relative with whom to play golf. It may have changed my life, because golf would have provided an opportunity for me to communicate with my family in a natural and special way.

I recently spoke to my 21-year-old nephew who lives in Ohio, and he told me that he went to a local driving range to hit balls – probably his first time doing so -- because he was thinking about me. He said the action of hitting balls gave him an opportunity to think about life. Just think if I could have been there with him to provide him some of my own personal guidance.

I know the power of golf and how it can bring people together. After all, it saved my life – and it gave me a life. And I can’t wait to share the game with my own children.

"When you're out on the course with the person in the world you have the most influence on--your son--you're each watching the other handle the success and disappointment and unfairness and good luck of the game. You're letting your son find his way, and at the same time he sees that you're vulnerable, that you aren't perfect, that you have feelings and emotions that are human. He learns that even when a man does the best he can, he makes mistakes, and that it's all right. Everything is stripped away on the golf course, and you get closer. I felt that way with Tiger,
every time we played."

— Earl Woods