Note: this was supposed to be posted last fall… no idea how it didn’t happen. In any event, these things didn’t just happen, but none of my conclusions have changed, so I’m going to post it anyway 🙂
Sometimes Golf is a funny game. Not funny “haha” but funny “what the blank just happened.” Yesterday I played and striped the ball all over the course, but I couldn’t chip or put worth beans and wound up posting a score that was four strokes worse then today’s. This is particularly odd because, today, I’m not sure I could’ve hit the ball solidly if I fell on it. Honestly, for much of the day, I might have bad better luck trying to fell a tree then executing a golf shot with my irons; however, my putting (and chipping) was absolutely on fire. There was also this:
That was after two practically perfect shots, and what was left was for a birdie (spoiler… I made it). But other than that my shot making was shabby… with no side order of chic.
What made the round really pleasant, though, was the presence of my occasional photographer, erstwhile backgammon foil, salad savant, and constant comedic companion… also known as, my wife. To say that she is “new to the game” would, perhaps be considered an understatement. She has never played a round, and has really only been on a course once… I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about that round, but suffice it to say… there was an incident with a cart on the green.
My wife is a very curious person. Therefore she really *needed* to know what hitting the ball fat (when the club hits the ground before the ball on your shot, producing a kind of “clunk” of a shot) or “thin” (the opposite, when the club doesn’t get low enough and you essentially chop the ball in half) meant. We spoke of Birdies (one under par on a particular hole), Bogeys (one over), and Eagles (two under). She was also introduced to the hosel (the tube at the top of the club head that the shaft is inserted into), the toe (the outer tip, furthest away from the hosel) and the heal (inner part of the club head, right below the hosel) of the club as well. We covered why there are multiple sets of tee’s on each hole (championship length, standard length, youth, and women’s tees) and why par on any particular hole is always two more strokes than it should take you to reach the green (a two put is always assumed in golf).
It was fun explaining things to her about the game, and a great reminder that it’s not obvious to those who haven’t played that the yardage markers on the course don’t tell you have far you have gone, but, rather, how far you have to go. It’s got me thinking that a little golf 101 companion piece might be useful. So I’m giving that some thought now as well.
This little trip just keeps getting more and more interesting…