Do you know what’s a bad feeling?  When your golf season is winding down and you realize that you didn’t play nearly as much as you would have liked this year.  That’s what is happening to me right now.  Here we are in early October and I can’t even tell you exactly how many times I’ve played this year.  But what I can tell you is, it was less than ten.  And even worse…not one single time did I play a round of eighteen.  That’s right, only a bunch of nine-hole rounds.  That’s bad to begin with, but when you consider that I write for a golf blog…that’s nothing short of pathetic. Am I really that busy or just being lazy?

And that’s the thing – I really have no excuse for my lack of playing.  I mean, I had plenty of opportunities, I just didn’t take advantage of those opportunities as often as I should have.  And now, we’re getting into my favorite time of year for golf – autumn.  The temperatures are generally in the 60’s and 70’s.  The humidity is dropping.  The leaves are changing.  You can’t beat it here in New England.  So if I’m going to make up for my lack of play this season, now is the time I’d like to do it.  What’s even more frustrating is, the same thing happened to me last year.  It was late last May when I first mentioned how much later in the year it was when I kicked of my golf season.  And it was all downhill from there.  As a matter of fact, since then, it has yet to go back uphill.

As mentioned last May, sometimes life gets in the way of golf.  Sure, the kids play sports.  So I attend their games.  That takes up time during the spring and summer for baseball season.  Then, during the late summer and into fall, soccer takes over.  Hey, when you have athletic kids, it’s one sport after another.  But it’s not just sports.  Sometimes it’s work.  Sure, there’s been a couple of times when I’ve had to put in a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday.  Or maybe there are just other commitments like birthdays, weddings or random other get-togethers.  The larger your family becomes, the more events happen.

But as I think about it further, I’m beginning to think I was just lazy.  As I said before, there were opportunities.  Maybe not always for eighteen, but nine is better than none, right?  For instance, I work only five minutes from a nine-hole course.  All summer long I have the opportunity to play nine right after work.  But only once did I take that opportunity to do so.  And with the kids sports on the weekends – sometimes the games are around noon, but sometimes not until 4:00.  There’s no reason I can’t play either before or after their games.  There was even one time that I was so desperate to play eighteen, that when I asked one of my buddies to play and he responded he only had time to play nine, I didn’t even bother to answer.  I skipped it altogether.  And I wonder why I haven’t played as much as I’d like!

Now that I’ve had the time to write this out, I realize now, no matter the commitments, there’s always time to squeeze in some golf.  It might take some creative scheduling, and I might have to settle for nine holes.  But either way, there is always time.  I always make time for the things I enjoy and love.  So why should I treat golf any differently?

Swing ’til you’re happy!