Channel The Mamba- Golfing Like Kobe

I lost. I hate losing in golf. On the last hole yesterday Steve McPhee asked if I was going to put it on my blog if I lost to him. I was honored that he would ask, but I laughed in his face. I wasn’t going to lose. Channel the Mamba I told myself. Do it for Kobe.

Channel the Mamba

Like everyone else in the world I was stunned by Kobe’s death. I was sad and surprisingly so. I always liked Kobe but I didn’t consider myself his biggest fan. There is no Kobe jersey in my wardrobe, but I loved watching him play. Actually I always preferred watching Lebron over Kobe.

I spent much of the night of Kobe’s death wondering about life. Flying in a helicopter used to be part of my job. Kelsey showed up to watch me fly away to a crash scene one day. It scared her. In reality it was a very frightening job for a young physician. I wasn’t scared about my own life. I was scared for my patients’.

It is not infrequent in my profession to witness someone’s last breath. As a flight physician I would pick people up from crash sites or remote hospitals to take them to larger hospitals where they could be cared for. I remember performing CPR on a patient in the middle of a flight. It was a scary and surreal experience. While performing CPR I didn’t have time to think. I was doing what I had trained for. Miraculously, the patient survived. I didn’t realize it at the time but maybe I was Channelling The Mamba.

Why?

It is very easy to ask why in life. Why me….? I get asked the why question all the time at work. I here this questioned being uttered under the breath of people who are suffering. It is shouted in the hallways of busy emergency departments.

In my job I don’t have a lot of time to ask why. When someone dies in the ER the staff is not left with time to mourn. We have 20 other patients who need to be taken care of. You learn to move on. We learn to suppress emotion that may want to come to the surface. Occasionally it slips through. We cry with he families that are grieving. We feel human again.

Ironically I learned about Kobe’s death while at work. It had been a busy morning until then. After 10am nobody seemed to come in to the ER. It was quiet. I had time to feel human. I mourned silently for his wife, his daughters, and the families of others who had died. Why Kobe? Why…..?

A Girl Dad Hero

I was affected to the core by Kobe’s death. I never met Kobe. He didn’t even play golf. I was a fan, but not his biggest. I still don’t know why it stunned me so much. Obviously others felt the same reaction.

I have learned more about Kobe in that last 5 days then I had ever known about him. I’ve watched countless hours of youtube videos about him. I finally looked up why he called himself Mamba. Like most of us, he did some things that he regreted. He will go down in history as a hero to many. After watching the moving tribute about being a Girl Dad he goes down as a hero in my book.

I Lost

Yesterday I lost. In reality does losing one round of golf matter? Steve told me it does.

Going into the 18th hole yesterday I was up one stroke. I hit a ball in the water and ended up with a triple bogey. Steve and I shook hands and I congratulated him on a round well played. I have a lot to learn about The Mamba Mentality. Channel the Mamba wasn’t working so hot for me yesterday. Or maybe it was. Maybe that’s exactly what Kobe would have done on the golf course.

About the Author

I am a husband, father, ER doctor, and an avid golfer.  With a handicap of 3.0 I have a fairly legitimate claim to be among the Top 100 Physician Golfers in the United States.  You can read more about my story on my about page. Feel free to contact me or follow my sites on social media.