Notes in the key of C

It’s easy to remember days when I would never even consider watching golf on TV, much less wasting my time playing the game.
My how the years can change our minds about things that seemed foolish to us. A good friend of mine picked up a cheap set of clubs at a garage sale just for the hell of it and went out and started playing. He seemed to think it was lots of fun and good exercise, so, I thought “Hmmm!” if it’s good exercise, why not?
Did you ever notice that in most cases, the people who sell golf clubs at garage sales seem to be clueless about the game and bear little resemblance to a real golfer. Two or three different brands of clubs in one bag tell me these probably moved here from another garage sale.
Nevertheless, with Mike’s encouragement, I took on the game. No instruction books, no lessons, no videos to watch, just the old learn-as-you- go technique. I watched a little of it on CBS Saturday….that was all I needed to get started. We tried the driving range. Sometimes we accidentally hit the ball but most of the time, we carved out chunks of dirt and grass or missed altogether. When people next to you suddenly grab their stuff and move over and away, you know you’re beginning to earn a little respect. Either that or your last swing came a little too close for comfort.
It used to cost us about $7.50 to play a round at the “cow pasture” Country Club. You knew where the greens where, because they had flags stuck in a hole and the grass was just a lttle bit shorter then the rest of the course. You had watch out for poison ivy and snakes near the par-5, sixth hole. And just forget about keeping score. Trying to keep the ball in play and out of the bushes was hard enough. And at the 7th hole, near the road, we let all the traffic go by first before taking a swing. Simply put, it was nine holes and 2 1/2 hours of fall-on-the-ground, side-splitting, almost peeing-in- your pants golf. And good exercise in the hot sun, too. So, what’s wrong with that? A workout, tan and a bellyful of laughs, all for $7.50.

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