Well, it’s that time of year again – it’s Masters Week.  Is it just me or does this week seem to be when everything golf seems to really get moving.  I mean that from the perspective of the pro tours as well as the hacks like me who don’t have the opportunity to play golf year-round.  It’s like we sit around in hibernation all winter long, but once we begin hearing talk of the most popular golf tournament of the year, we all begin to remember where we spend a portion of our weekends all summer long.

On the pro tour, this is the one that really seems to spark the interest of golf fans.  Sure, there has already been several tournaments so far this year, but let’s face it…the Puerto Rico Open doesn’t quite get the juices flowing like The Masters does, am I right?  As I’ve mentioned many times, I don’t particularly care for watching golf on TV, but I’ll make an exception for The Masters.  But honestly, until this week…I pay little to no attention to pro golf.

But as far as us hacks tearing up our local courses, for those of us up north, we haven’t played golf in roughly five months.  So it’s this week that our golf blood really gets flowing.  It’s like we use Masters week as our official kickoff to golf season.  I haven’t been out on a course yet this year, mainly because this past weekend was the first “golfable” weekend we’ve seen yet…well, according to me anyway.  But prior commitments kept me away from the course.  However, this coming weekend will be a different story…

Even further, the golf media obviously knows what happens this week.  Does anyone seriously think that controversial Golf Digest cover was picked for this past week totally at random?  Of course not.  They knew exactly what they were doing.  Don’t get me wrong, for all of the problems I have with the idea of it in general, if they were going to do it, then it certainly was the right time to release that edition.

So in other parts of the country where golf is a year round sport, maybe this isn’t as big a deal to you as it is here.  But in the northeast, this is somewhat the beginning of golf for us.  It’s like opening day in baseball or the first Thursday night NFL game of the year.  Or maybe opening day in fishing season when the anglers are up at the crack of dawn attempting to get the best spot.  Well, it is for me anyway.  See you on the course this weekend!

Swing ’til you’re happy!