It turns out I am not a golf guy. I am more of a people I get to hang out with guy. This basically means that I don't have a burning passion for the game of golf itself. I think if I graphed my happiness over a complete round (not including the fun I have talking to friends) it would look like a dying mans EKG with the few moments of joy being the last heartbeats. (I need to apologize for that terribly long sentence) I know its different for some folks because we went out this past weekend and played as a threesome. On Sunday we were joined by a guy whose friend backed out on him the day before…. and he decided to play anyway!
That is my nightmare. Four and a half hours making small talk with strangers. Watching my words because I'm not sure what they can handle. Not. a. chance. If my friend backs out, I don't play. And by the way the kid (I say kid but he was in his late twenties early thirties lest your internal movie screen was showing you someone younger) we played with was nice. He was a scratch golfer which means he was probably real annoyed with the three of us by the end of his round. His equipment probably totaled out at two months of my rent and he shot a casual round better than my best ever. That's where I noticed the difference.
He loved the game, I love the people. I should also note that I shot the best round I've had in 20 years. Ten seconds after I tallied up my score I didn't really give a shit. I have however something I am proud of: over the course of the summer I have crawled into the brain of one of my playing partners. He is the member at the fancy club I go to and he tries to keep his game classy even when the wheels come of. Classy meaning he doesn't really swear.
On Sunday as I'm casually keeping up with him the frustration was beginning to grow and he shanked one into the woods and declared COCK IN THE MOUTH. My other friend and I were dying. He tried to apologize but once you utter something like that there's no coming back. Fun fact, its harder to order a t-shirt that says that than I would have previously thought. You would think that minds would be a little more in this day and age…