Golf Is Not Just A Game, It’s Many Games

NO PRESSURE, NO DIAMONDS!

(Caption: In 1915, J.D. Travers won the U.S. Open at Baltusrol GC. He was the second of the five amateurs to win the event.)

On Monday, I was still thinking about our club’s member-member tournament last weekend. My partner, Peter, and I found it particularly grueling given the fact that at the end of Day 1’s best-ball round, we were tied for dead last with a 3 over 73. To say that we didn’t mesh is a great understatement.  In fact, I broke the sacred rule of never saying, “Sorry,” to your golf partner on Hole 2 (our second hole) when I took a double bogey 5. 

We did rally on Saturday with a respectable both-balls-count +9 149 total, which actually gave us a Tie 2 for Day 2 and $75 in day money.  However, our 222 total was a great distance behind the winners’ impressive 211 total and we certainly didn’t cash in on any of the big money.

While I certainly enjoyed the company of Peter and our playing companions Greg & Andy on the first day and Tom & Jim on the second, I must confess that I found my first vodka tonic particularly refreshing. (Yes, I realize that vodka doesn’t always relieve one’s frustrations, but I thought it was worth a shot.) Anyway, as I was finishing drink No. 1, I remembered that there are all types of golf – Saturday morning golf with our toss-up group, individual match-play events, team competitions like our 1502, a solo nine holes at dusk, wedding-party golf, charity scramble golf, family golf and the unforgiving pressure of medal-play tournaments. 

Yes, golf is a game, but it is also many games, all of which offer up a wide variety of challenges and experiences. There are days when I swear that I will never play in a serious medal-play tournament ever again, but by the time it takes me to finish my first post-round drink, I find myself toasting ALL of golf’s great games! Three Cheers for golf!

Now that a normal, just-for-fun weekend is approaching, I found myself looking for a few golf quotes that would put a smile on your face.

“The determining bulk of Scotch people had heard of golf ever since they had heard of God and often considered the two as of equal importance.” – English writer G.K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936)

“A golfer needs a loving wife to whom he can describe the day's play through the long evening.” -- English humorist P.G. Wodehouse (1881 to 1975), from his book, The Clicking of Cuthbert

“One reason golf is such an exasperating game is that a thing we learned is so easily forgotten, and we find ourselves struggling year after year with faults we had discovered and corrected time and again.” -- Bobby Jones (1902 to 1971), who won The Grand Slam in 1930

“The only place over there that’s holier than St Andrews is Westminster Abbey.” – Sam Snead (1912 – 2002), from his book, The Education of a Golfer (1962)

 “There’s more tension in golf than in boxing because golfers bring it on themselves.  It’s silly really because it’s not as if the golf ball is going to jump up and belt you on the whiskers, is it?” – Henry Cooper (1934 to 2011), British heavyweight boxing champion

“If your opponent is playing several shots in vain attempts to extricate himself from a bunker, do not stand near him and audibly count his strokes. It would be justifiable homicide if he wound up his pitiable exhibition by applying his Niblick to your head.” – Harry Vardon (1870 – 1937), who won The (British) Open in 1896, ‘98, ‘99, 1903, ‘11 & ‘14. He won the U.S. Open in 1900 at the Chicago Golf Club.

“Why don’t you ask Mr. Dunlop?” – Ben Hogan, after Gary Player, who endorsed Dunlop clubs, asked for advice from Hogan, who had his own line of golf clubs.

Play Away!
Allan (Yes, still a 13.)