#52 - Golf 18 Holes

What is all this stuff?

You: "How have you never been golfing?"
Me: "I know, right?!"
You: "No, I mean, how have you never been golfing?"
Me: "Yeah, I know.  It's about as weird as how I've never been camping?"
You: "Wait, you've never been camping?!"
Me: "No."
You: "No, I mean, YOU'VE never been CAMPING?!"
Me: "No, and no, you're not -"
You: "OMG!  We are totally going camping this summer."
Me: "No, we're not, see -"
You: "Yes, we totally are.  You are going to love.  Seriously."
Me: "Yeah, totally.  I would totally probably love it, but we're not going to go."
You: "Why not?"
Me: "Because I've had this same conversation with like 22 other people, and someone has yet to take me camping.  The same thing happens when I tell someone that going on a blind date is on my list."
You: "I would love to set you up on a blind date!"
Me: "Sure, maybe you would, but you won't, so can we stop talking about it?"

Whew.

Geez, I should probably be nicer to my friends.  Especially since I have had this conversation SO MANY TIMES.  So many times that I now have a script.  In case you are ever about to say these things to me, my answers are above.  And yes, I will totally go camping with you, and yes, you can set me up on a blind date, but I don't want to talk about it anymore because it never happens and I'm tired of having that same conversation over and over where I pretend to believe you.

Wow.  Where is all of this coming from?  I had a fantastic Saturday afternoon golfing with Tara Edberg and Marianne Woldrop last week and here I am complaining about a repetitive conversation.

Anyways.

I have been to the driving range multiple times.  I have played part of a par 3 course.  I have played the 2 holes at camp over and over.  I have played the holes Dave dug into the intramural fields at NEIU.  We even once played in the snow with cones.

But FINALLY I got the chance to play a full 18... even if it still were a par 3.

Tara & Marianne were talking about golfing one evening over wine after class.  I overheard and busted in on their conversation.  They very warmly invited me to join them for a round of golf a couple weekends later.

Marianne, our expert, picked the course.  She beat us there and bought us a few buckets of balls to warm up at the driving range.  I tried to remember everything the camp golf coach and Edmund Cruz taught me over the years, and I will say, my swing is much better than it used to be.  I only scrape the top of the ball instead of hitting it 50% of the time or so now.

After a wee bit of warm up, we headed to the course.

Tara made me carry her stuff EVERYWHERE.

Now, the last time I attempted to play a course -- a 9-hole, par 3 in Ann Arbor -- I hated it.  I went with my then best friend and another friend.  They were both very good.  They were both very good naturally.  I was not.  But, my sports history and PE major training taught me that to do better at something, you just try harder.  You focus your adrenaline and play harder.  That....... doesn't really work in golf.  I sucked more.  Mostly that came in the form of just blatantly missing the ball altogether.
I hated it.  I hated it even more because my friends couldn't help me.  The game just made sense to them.  They knew how to adjust and when.  But because it was so natural to them, they had trouble explaining it to me.

That horse was SO rude.

This time, however, from the very start, I had 2 very supportive and knowledgeable coursemates.  (I don't know what to call them.  I'd say we were a threesome but then we end up having the kind of conversation we did much later in the night when accompanied by some fantastic wine.)  They both gently gave me bits of helpful information from the driving range until the end of the course.  I learned a bit of course etiquette, technical course stuff, playing etiquette, and even some skills :)

My best hole.

The other great part was that we just walked and chatted for a couple hours in the middle of a beautiful afternoon.  (Yes, in February.  We have beautiful afternoons in February in San Diego.  No need to get fussy and tell me to stop bragging.  I live in a beautiful place and I like reminding myself how beautiful it is.  If you hate it so much, you can move too :))

Anyways, I wasn't as terrible as I feared.  I even hit par a couple times.  That's a major improvement.









Thank you, mucho, to Marianne for taking us, being full of wonderful and also gentle teachings, and for letting me use those stellar clubs of yours, especially that 4 :)  Thank you to Tara for being my driving buddy, keeping me entertained on the course, and for a super entertaining ride home.  Let's do that again soon!