"Sometimes You Gotta Go Where Everybody Knows Your Name!" The Grille Room is where you will find serious golfers at any club. It's where the boasting and challenges happen, the excuses flood the room as scorecards are revealed after a round, and most importantly, accountability can be found when it's needed 24/7/365. It's named the "Legends" Grille Room because testimonials can be found by those who went before us and whose examples helped shape The CC of Life.

If you've played poorly, you have that look that says: "Don't even ask!" So, without hesitation, we ask, "How'd you hit 'em today?" This strategy is how we take the focus off ourselves and plant it squarely on someone else - especially when we've played poorly. This way, we can pridefully keep our score under wraps and use any excuse to slip out of the room.

Then there's the guy who shot "lights-out." He's dying for someone to ask how he played so he can give a blow-by-blow description of the round, as he boasts in fantastic detail. What's the strategy? Ignore him! Don't ask, let him bust!  Why give him satisfaction? If he brings it up, change the subject the first chance you get. Or better yet, jump in about your best round and stretch those highlights just a bit to get that "one up" on him.

But no matter how you cut it, this is where the score is settled around any club. And, like it or not, you'll have to give some answers here because we tend to beat a situation into the ground.

Isn't this precisely the way many of our lives go? When things are going poorly, due to our prideful desperation, we take the focus off of ourselves so we can keep up our facades. We make up excuses and talk about the bad breaks life's been dealing us as we fine-tune that ever-increasing popular spin, which not only can get the focus off of us and our situations but if we get good at it, we can hurt other people big time. But who cares in the "If it is to be, it is up to me" generation we live in? Besides, who will if I don't look out for #1? 

On the other hand, how about when Life seems to be dealing us all aces? You know when you hit it out of bounds in Life and come out smelling like a rose! Then we boast with more trophies and toys, and often, we do it around someone whose Life may be rough or maybe even a bit stymied at the time. We get clever at putting down others to make ourselves feel even more significant, all to fill the emptiness in our lives, and believe it or not, it's a vacuum only God can fill.