Lessons

Somewhere around 60 years ago, I considered myself a golfer. Actually, it was only one of several pastimes I used to hang out with my buddies, drink to excess, and just have fun. “Hanging out” and drinking are topics for another time. Right now, I want to tell you about the first golf lesson of my life which I took yesterday.

My interest in golf was rekindled by a recent month-long visit from my son and his wife. Just for grins, the four us went “golfing”. My attempt at golf started out pretty ugly and got worse as the day went on. It was physically taxing due to the record number of strokes it took me to move the ball 400 yards. We did, however, achieve our objective that afternoon — we had a lot of fun.

I’m a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and, coincidently, someone had recently contributed an entire set of golf clubs and golf bag. There they sat, daring me to buy them and, once again play golf for recreation. The bag was tagged for sale at $2.00 and the clubs at $7.50. So, for less than 10 bucks, I could get back into the game.

Prior to yesterday, the 7th of May, 2024, I had never taken a golf lesson! The more I think about it, the more incredible, and dumb, it sounds. I’ve always loved the game — never missed watching the Masters tournament, the British open, and most of what they call the “majors”. Even more puzzling now is the fact that in the 1990’s our home was less than a 1/4 mile from an excellent public golf course which, for the 10 years we lived there, I probably used twice.

But there I was, for roughly 40 years duffing, dubbing, flubbing, and shanking my way to 100+ strokes for 18 holes.

Buying my own business in 2002 totally wiped the game of golf from my agenda until March of this year, followed closely by yesterday’s lesson. With only a 30 minute lesson (“dipping my toes in the water”), the challenge was to pick up the most essential points. Point number one, which my instructor immediately pointed out, was that my $9.75 set of clubs was a woman’s set. He appeared to be irritated by that and immediately offered me the use of his clubs. From that point on, I made gradual progress by the minute to the point of putting one shot on the practice green about 8′ from the flag.

My current neighbor, who lives directly across the street has a beautiful set of men’s clubs which she was trying to sell at her garage sale last week. I’m hoping I can still get it for around $50.00. If so, along with reading history, tending to my Garage Gallery, volunteering, and sharing my life’s odyssey on this blog, it could be a struggle squeezing in 9 holes.

Nice “problem” to have.