A new old passion

GOLF.

A rich man's sport. Where one driver can cost more than the rest of your clubs combined. No matter how much money you spend on your equipment if you suck you just look pretty at playing bad. The only sport I know of where the better you play, the lower your score and the less of a handicap you are. Go figure.

How did I pick up this sport again after say ummmmm. . . . . more than a 10 year hiatus? Well before I get into the near present I'll retrace my distant past. Back in high school is where the game was first introduced to me by my good friends. We were a bunch of nerdy misfits. Seeing as how we also ran cross country and track, there were more than a few occasions when we would be on a "run" and you would have a better chance of finding us on the links.



Back in those days I didn't really have any clubs or a golf bag of my own. So my friend David would lend me one of his spare bag, which was plaid and big enough to fit maybe 5 clubs. And that may be a stretch. In this bag would be a 6 iron, a putter, and a driver. That's right 3 clubs!Sadly that was all I was good enough to use. To be honest, I really shouldn't use the word "good" to describe how I was hitting back then. I was notorious for topping the ball. I guess I had an innate fear of damaging somebody else's clubs. It's a habit I still have on occasion.

I played on occasion while in college but still I never got any better or even half way decent. It was frustrating most of the time but for some reason golf was something I enjoyed. There is something to be said about being with your friends surrounded by nature, even if it is a well maintained "nature."

Along came optometry and there went most of my spare time and money. One of the casualties was my occasional golf game. Time and money was sparse indeed. Fast forward to the near present (to be more specific June 2006) and at the suggestion of one of my office assistance I decided to go to the driving range with him. Despite the fact I didn't even touch the golf ball on my first 20 or so swings, I rediscovered my interest for the complexity and zen like nature of golf. Afterwards I decided to take a daring plunge and bought a set of clubs. Ohhhhh! Real risky for a doctor, I know. But considering I had only gone to the driving range once in all this decade and had no certainty for some consistent golfing buddies, this was a leap of faith.



On June 20, Andrew and I hit the links. After a few holes of completely making a clown of myself, I found a stroke I have never had before. The game had somehow for a short period of time flowed for me (granted my chipping still sucks), but the grinding nature of my previous incarnation of a swing was gone. I was more than happy with golf. I became ecstatic. And over the course of the summer I was even more pleasantly surprised by my vast improvement from before. Having made that commentary, I am now below average and not just a novice.



As for those golfing buddies, Andrew and Derrick, have defined my summer of '06. There's not much more a guy can ask for than two other crazies willing to get up for a 630 AM tee time once a week. Well almost every week. Why 630? Between my work schedule and their school schedule it didn't allow much wiggle room. And so we tried to play almost twice a week. And we were pretty successful with other people rotating in and out of the core group, but they could never hang with the craziness that was our passion for the game. Or was it the delerium.


In fact I probably played more golf this summer than the rest of my life put together. It was a blast if for no other reason for all the golfing we did, but of course there were other reasons. Thanks to my two young friends I was able to recapture a small measure of my younger days. And to think the summer started off so slow I thought it would be one of the more forgettable ones. I owe Andrew & Derrick a debt of gratitude for those moments.