First golf of the season

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.