Like a $400 TaylorMade driver hitting a $50 a dozen Titlest ProV1--OK, that was a shameless reference to yesterday's blog post--it hit me. The bottom line in all of this is I really love this game of golf. Why do I love it so much? Here are ten reasons that the game is so special for me. I know there are more than ten, but I will save other reasons for future blog posts when I am out of ideas. These ten I can think of right now and are in no particular order.
1. What a great way to get out of the house and experience nature at it's best. We get to play the game on some very beautiful real estate.When I am out on the course, I breathe in the fresh air and smell the fresh cut green grass. Well, I do live in California and the grass is brown, but I think you get the idea. I have seen deer and foxes as well as other animals on many of my rounds that inhabit the courses or live in the surrounding land. Many of the ponds on the courses that I have played have bass and other fish in them as well as the many Titlist ProV1's--at $5 a pop--I have put into the ponds or lakes.
2. You get to play with old friends and meet new friends. I don't mind going out to a course I have never played and join up with other golfers. This is the way I met many of my golfing friends and met other friends through those friends. I met my wife on E-Harmony but that's another story.
3. I get to spend quality time with my wife as she plays golf as well. I don't give her lessons, so after the round we are still talking. The great thing about this is that we don't always have to play golf together, but we have a lot of fun when we do.
4. Golf can be competitive and you can play in tournaments or you can just go out and have a friendly round of just playing the game. I love to compete but I also love to just go out and play. It doesn't matter and although I love playing in a tournament, I like to play a relaxed round as well with nothing on the line except the enjoyment of the game.
5. Golf is a game for life. You can start at an early age and play it almost until you die. I started at age thirteen and am now in my sixties. My golf career is not over and won't be almost until I die.
6. Golf is for everyone. I've heard that line somewhere before, but it does ring very true. It doesn't matter if you are man or women, young or old, junior or senior, handicapped or able bodied you can play the game.
7. I love the nineteenth hole. This is the place where you sit down with friends old or new over a tall cold whatever and just talk about the round or golf in general. Most everyone there is a golfer and all speak the same language. Not all of it may be the truth, but that's OK too.
8. Golf can be frustrating, but most golfers are optimists and will be back again for another round even though they missed that two footer for birdie on the eighteenth hole. This also lends itself to the conversation at the nineteenth hole as well. Besides, nothing feels better than hitting a 300 yard drive or holing out a 50 birdie putt.
9. You can never be perfect. Baggar Vance I think said it best in the movie Baggar Vance when he told Captain Junah that golf is a game that can never be won, only played. You cannot win with a score of zero and the highest score doesn't always win. I'll share a story about that another time, but not now.
10. It is a wonderful feeling knowing that you play a game that has been played for 400 years and you are a part of that tradition. Golf is a game of rules and etiquette as well as history. It is a privilege to be a part of that. You can't help but feel that every time you play.
Yes, the game can be frustrating. It certainly is a game that is aptly described by that ABC's Wide World Of Sports opening line of "The thrill of Victory and the agony of defeat". This can happen by the way in the same round and just in a few minutes of each other. That's what the game is all about. I LOVE GOLF!
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| The bucks stopped here. I missed the birdie putt so they went to the next hole. |
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