By Steve Gordon
It happened
today. Two months before tax returns are due I got out on the golf course for
the first time this year. It was only 13 holes but it was out playing golf.
With a
scheduled appointment to have my taxes done early afternoon and the day free
AND weather supposed to be warming a little I just had to do it. The itch came
early because it is only mid February after all, but…avid golfers just want to
play golf whenever they can.
Thus…guilty
as charged here.
The course
was wet and soggy because underneath the turf is frozen and the combination of
some melting and rain the water has no place to go. I hauled out the three
wheel push cart, strapped on the new Christmas golf bag, and put on the new
water proof Christmas golf shoes and was off.
I played
solo and was first off this morning as other golfers were starting to pull into
the parking lot and mill around. Cart paths only wasn’t a deterrent for a lifelong
walker, even one with a bad back who doesn’t walk as much as he should. The
bottom line is that with cart path only I’d likely walk just as much with a
cart than (hopefully) straight down fairway after fairway.
First time
out and who knows what would happen. I did hit some balls on a range a couple
weeks ago but that was just loosening up the golf muscles. To my surprise the
tee shots were pretty straight and solid contact on most of them was the rule, not
the exception.
I wasn’t
concerned about distance because of not playing, cooler weather and turf that
was mostly like a wet sponge. However after a few holes there were a couple of
pretty good ones. Not mid-season but definitely better than first time out
hits.
The first
shot was dead center hit and it plugged. The second hole was another fairway. I
skipped over to six and played seven and eight before jumping to eleven and
played through to eighteen. On seven I started to play two balls and a personal
scramble.
Two and a
half hours later was coming off 18 in plenty of time to get home, grab some
lunch and head out to the tax man.
I was
surprised with how I was able to hit the ball although the irons off wet turf
were a problem, but this wasn’t about scoring or even much about practicing. It
was about getting out and stretching out the golf muscles and enjoying being
outside. It was a total success.
Oh, how did
I make out with the tax stuff…that didn’t come off too bad either.
