This is my favorite time of year. The days are getting cooler and more comfortable. The nights are becoming, what I refer to as, “sleeping weather.” Soon, the leaves will be blazing with the foliage of another beautiful Connecticut autumn. It doesn’t get any better than spending a few hours out on the course on a Saturday morning in September or October. But not Sunday! Why not Sunday? Well, becaue of another reason this is my favorite time of year. It’s football season!
Since I began playing golf, I try not to let much get in the way of being on the course. Sometimes I can’t help it. Things happen. I can’t control the weather. And with my wife being a photographer, sometimes her appointments, sessions or weddings get in the way. But hey, it’s better for her to be making us money, than for me to be spending it, right? But the one thing that I will always allow to get in the way of golf is the NFL. I will put away my putter in favor of my Patriots.
I have long been a fan of football. Ever since I was just a little kid and my dad would keep me up at night to watch Monday Night Football. Nothing has changed since then. As a matter of fact, I find myself doing the same thing with my boys now. The minute the Super Bowl ends, I long for September to come around again. I want to spend my Sundays lounging in front of the TV with a beer, eating chips and wings. I’ll play golf on Sunday, but I have to be home by 1:00.
However, as much as I love football and look forward to the start of the season, I guess it is a bittersweet feeling as well. Because when the football season is just starting up, that means golf season is winding down. So I begin to reflect on another season of golf. I look back on another season in which I didn’t get to play nearly as much as I would have liked. I don’t really reflect on my performance all that much. For me, it’s more about quantity than quality. I think back on some of my favorite rounds. I look back and appreciate playing a course I’ve never played before, or one I haven’t visited in a few years. I try to remember the good rounds and forget the bad. There’s usually not a whole lot of good rounds for me to remember!
But along with the disappointing feeling of another golf season coming to an end, is the feeling of knowing I am also entering my favorite part of the golf season! Often times, we will try to save some of the best courses for last. Courses we know have the best views of the changing leaves. The prettiest courses in autumn. There’s nothing like standing at the top of an elevated par-3, hitting your ball into a sea of reds, oranges and yellows, followed up by searching for the ball in the woods while the fallen leaves crunch beneath your Foot-Joys. How about playing a course with a few holes that wind around an orchard right when the apples are in season. There’s nothing like eating an apple picked right off the tree. And it’s even better when I can simply drive my golf cart right up to the tree, and pick out the best one I can find. Now that’s great golf.
So let’s all enjoy these last few weeks of the season. Forget your score for a while. Don’t try so hard. Don’t take it so serious. Enjoy the beautiful weather and comfortable temperatures. And if we’re lucky enough to have that “golf weather” last deep into the year, then let’s just enjoy the fact that we’re out on the course at all! Just not on Sundays after 1:00.
Swing ’til you’re happy!
A Fitting Farewell To A Golf Buddy
Recently, a friend of mine (and fellow hack) had unfortunately lost his father. You see, his dad was an avid golfer and the game was a big part of their lives. Not only was he his father, he was also his first and best golf buddy. A lot of their issues were discussed and resolved on the course. Needless to say, it was almost therapeutic for them to be out there together.
As an advocate for the game this means a lot. This is something that goes above and beyond winning a tournament. The more I thought about it the more I realized that a loss of this magnitude is life changing. Don’t get me wrong, if there was a slight a chance that I could win the Masters that too would be life changing but, I’m referring to something that is much more significant than a green jacket.
When my buddy’s dad would hit the course, it was “Big Bird” and “Lady Luck” that would come through for him in the clutch. “Big Bird” was his Big Bertha driver and “Lady Luck” was his lucky #7 iron. According to him, these were his essential clubs that he relied on so much almost like a safety blanket. He was confident with those two clubs.
I’ll never forget my friends ultimate tribute to his dad and favorite golfing buddy. A couple days after his father passed, we took him out for a quick round to help him get his mind off of what was going on. As he placed his bag on the cart, we all noticed something different…there stood “Big Bird” and “Lady Luck”.
Hit’em Long…yell FORE! Enjoy the game.
Indoor Putting; Who Gives a Sh*t?
I haven’t putted in my house in more than 8 years. The photo to the left is the reason. That’s my dog, Eleanor. She has a thing for spherical objects (and pork, but that’s another story). With her around, my putts never even get close to the plastic target. Instead, she knocks them off course with her snout and then proceeds to chase them around the room for the next hour (usually digressing after I wrestle them away from her).
But you know something? I don’t miss putting indoors on my carpet. For one, does it really help your putting on the course? I don’t know too many living rooms that have breaks in them. I mean seriously, all winter long you’re putting them in like a madman and then comes spring, a real green, and BAM – your ball moves to the right because of a break. But this article suggests it helps: “…anything is better than nothing. Just getting a putter in your hands and making some putting strokes is going to help. Practice makes perfect!”
Practice does indeed make perfect. I know plenty of VP’s who have a putter and fake plastic hole stashed behind their office door. “Give me a minute, I’m on a conference call!” Conference call my ass (of course, they could be on the conference call at the same time). Does it help? Funny, they can never break 100 at the annual company golf outing.
But indoor putting is big business. Got floor vents? If so, you my friend, are in luck. For only $19.95, you can have a “real golf hole in your house” (and if you putt it too hard, you have a real wall to automagically stop the ball). This ingenious putting aid is called Puttacup, and it will start shaving off the strokes in no time!
OK, this is my favorite part about Puttacup – once they realized that average floor vents are too small to fit a regular sized golf hole, they turned this adversity into marketing genius: “The advantage of this is that while you practice your putting at home, you are practicing into a cup that is a little smaller, so once you get out onto a real putting green, the actual hole will appear much bigger.” Brilliant! Too bad I don’t have floor vents.
This leaves me with very few options. Enter Truline Indoor Putting Greens. These beauts are “tour speed” and will “putt at a stimpmeter speed of approximately 13 feet.” Few things here: 1) Aren’t you always putting slightly uphill on these mats? 2) Not sure about your course, by the courses in my area rarely sport 13′ on the old stimpmeter. And 3) My wife’s an interior designer. There’s no way that thing is staying out in the living room for any length of time. Soon I won’t want to set it up and then it will just be collecting dust in the attic.
OK, I know I’m sort of going off on a tangent here. So let’s hear from you – do you find yourself putting indoors? Take the poll and let us know.
What Are Your Thoughts on Indoor Putting?
Time To Make The Doughnuts…
“Americans hate their jobs more than ever before in the past 20 years, with fewer than half saying they are satisfied.” – msnbc.com
A few years ago, msnbc.com posted this article about how much Americans do not like the careers they are in. Crazy ain’t it? Actually, they also mentioned in the same article that careerbuilder.com did a survey and found that 4 out of 5 U.S. workers do not have their dream job. This is not good. I once heard a saying: “If you like what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
So my fellow hacks, I have done the math and that means there are approximately 20 million (+/- 5 million) golfers not enjoying their jobs. This is probably why we also use golf as a way to relax and get away from our everyday routines. How can we change that statistic? It sucks to know that over 50% of our community dreads their 9 to 5.
Here’s what I propose; Get a job in the golf industry! Maybe being closer to that game we like will positively change our mental (and physical) well-being. Check out this list of careers in the golf field courtesy of golfutures.com:
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Golf Course Ownership/ Leasing
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General Manager Resort
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Hotel Operations Manager
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Director of Golf
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Head Professional/Manager
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Head Professional/Superintendent
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Head Golf Professional
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Corporate Golf Professional
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Food & Beverage Manager
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Director of Golf Instruction
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Collegiate Golf Coach
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Teaching Professional
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National Sales Manager
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Product Line Manager
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Golf Distributorship
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Golf Administrator
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Country Club Membership Director
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Manufacturer’s Representative
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Independent Sales Rep
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Golf Shop Merchandiser
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Assistant Golf Professional
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Caddie Master
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Site Manager Trainee
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Entry-Level Golf Assistant
Now there has to be some sort of career in this list that is similar to what we are doing now. Teachers, trainers, managers, sales – even golf course turf management is available. I used to love playing in the dirt as a kid and I’ve been told to “go watch grass grow” before. It’s a match! Maybe my future career is in keeping those fairways lush and the greens fast.
Hit’em long…yell FORE!! Be happy!
These Raisins Put it Down the Middle Every Time…
I have a new favorite commercial. You have to hand it to Heineken; despite not being a particular fan of their product (I’m more of a Belgian beer guy), they have some great advertisements.
The most recent series of ads (featuring a couple of guys in their 30’s who win the lotto and move to a retirement community in Florida to live the “easy life”) are, in my opinion, the best commercials out there now (I will literally stop fast-forwarding the DVR and rewind to the beginning of the spot so I can watch the full 30 seconds).
The latest in the ad series has the guys on the golf course, teeing-off with their new retiree pals. The opening line: “Wanna learn how to play golf? Play with old guys. These raisins put it down the middle every time” is not as much a slam on old guys as it is showing them respect. Mr. 30-something explains that since one of his new geriatric buddies (a former WWII sniper) slowed down his swing, he’s adjusted to a “more mature game.”
He effortlessly smacks one down the fairway. Another retiree uses his range-finder to gauge the distance – he enthusiastically announces, “156!” It’s at this point when I begin chuckling uncontrollably – much to the chagrin of my wife, who is next to me on the couch. “I don’t get it.” she says. I try to explain how older-types hit it short but straight and how that usually bests the younger guns, who typically spray it like they’re dousing the rough with DDT (of course, I first have to explain to her that 156 yards is not very far for a tee-shot).
Being a non-golfer, my wife still finds it humorless. But this is what I love about that commercial – it’s not just an ad that features golf, but an ad geared toward golfers – anyone who doesn’t play doesn’t get it.
I’ve posted previously about my great uncle (coincidentally, also a WWII vet) who would usually beat me despite my ability to out-drive him by 60 yards or more. No matter how addicted we are to distance, a slower swing usually results in more consistent scores.
So here’s to all the golfers out there with senior-flex shafts and a more “mature” game – I’ll meet you on the green…right after I walk through poison ivy, shank one off a tree trunk and check myself for ticks.
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