There are a number of keen golfers at work who from time to time organise golf days. Twice this year, they have fallen on days off work for me and I’ve been able to play. The first one was January 2nd and the second one was today.
These have actually also been my first and second rounds this decade/century/millenium (insert whatever word appeals to your level of impressiveness). Before this I had played maybe 3 rounds in my life. It is certainly interesting getting a perspective on this game from a rank beginner’s point of view. I’ve had lots of very helpful advice from Neale, Tim and Simon among others. The way Simon was going today, he reckoned bogey is the new par. If that’s so, then for me replace "bogey" with "quadruple bogey" and you get somewhere near it.
On the second day of this year I remember hearing that golf is a metaphor for life, with all its frustrations! It certainly seems to be the case. Some words may have even escaped my mouth that don’t usually. If the clubs I was using were my own, I just might have thrown one or two of them at some stage. Rarely does it all come together for me on one hole. If I haven’t muffed my tee shot, then a hack into the trees down the fairway will blow out my score. If I somehow manage to get onto the green well, then a putter becomes useless in my hands. Like the Par 4 9th hole today which I hit 2 sweet shots to get on the green – then 5-putted! The moment of "having a birdie putt", though from the edge of the green, obviously got to me. I did actually 2-put a few holes though, but usually after I’d taken about 8 to get on the green! 2 scores of 4 on Par 3 holes stood out like beacons of light today. Never has the word "bogey" sounded so good. As for the rest of it, let’s just say I regularly made double figures. Thinking about life in general – yeah I can remember similar things. If you do well in all the semester’s assignments, you bomb out in the exam. If you get the dream job, it takes sooooo long to get promoted to the level your skills warrant. If you manage to train really well for the half marathon, you get some injury before the City to Surf. If you’re killing it after 2 days of hang gliding training, you smash an upper arm bone on the third and it takes more than a year to finish…
I could go on and on. I’ve found it helps to just try to enjoy the scenery on the golf course and the effort of hitting balls, and comfort myself with the fact that I hardly ever play this game so not much can be expected. Despite all this, it has been tremendous fun and great company both days, and occasionally punctuated by the reflex shout of "woooohooooo!" that comes with the euphoria of unexpectedly hitting a clean shot down the middle of a fairway – just not quite as loud as when I landed on the beach at Merewether.
I can see why people get into golf, to the extent that they join clubs, get sets of clubs, and get out there whenever they can. It’s certainly a great way to – um – challenge yourself.
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