OK, it’s now May 21st and yesterday was the first day I was able to get out and play golf with the guys this season.  Seems like it’s getting later and later every year.  It used to be that as soon as the weather got nice, we were out on the course.  But now, family, our jobs, work around the house and various other commitments tend to keep us from the game we all love.

So what are we to do?  Do we just sit back and accept this? Do we just let life get in the way of the time we are longing to spend chasing the little white ball around the big green course?  Well, to put it simply…yes.  That’s exactly what we do. 

When things like this first began happening to me, I had a tough time accepting it.  After all, it had been years since I had a job requiring me to work on weekends.  So work never got in the way.  I was a single guy back when I took up golf, so family matters never got in the way.  But now, that seems like another lifetime. 

Luckily, work doesn’t get in the way for me.  But it does get in the way of our regular golfing group as one of us works on Saturdays.  So to make sure we can still play together we’re trying to move golf to Sundays. 

Family, on the other hand, is something that only seems to become more and more time-consuming as well.  Now I know I just made that seem like family time is a negative, but trust me, I only mean it to be negative in a golf sense.  I wouldn’t change family time for anything. 

What I mean is, as we get older, we become committed to our kids commitments.  Additionally, there are nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, cousins and friends, aunts and uncles…someone always has something going on.  Birthdays, graduations, school events, field trips, sports…there’s always something keeping you from being on the course. 

So what to do other than wait?  That’s about all we can do…wait.  But, as Tom Petty said…”The waiting is the hardest part.”  We wait until the kids are older.  We wait until they’re out of school.  We wait until sporting events are over.  We wait until they’re too old to have birthday parties.  Then, we can take our weekends back.  Then, we can go back to playing as often as we used to.  Then, we won’t be limited to fitting in golf when we have some free time.  Hopefully by then, all our time will be free!

But as much as I long for these days, I don’t want to make it seem like I’m in that much of a hurry.  Because these are the times that I’ll look back on when I am older.  And something tells me when I’m older, there’s a chance I may think just the opposite.

Swing ’til you’re happy!