Thank God for golf!! In a year when going to the grocery to find toilet paper became a competitive sport, the outdoor socially distanced return of our favorite activity has made the past 10 months much more bearable. The four hours spent on the golf course provided the escape from reality just as it always has. Sure there have been small adjustments to our normal golfing routine, but the ability to participate in this amazing game has been a savior to my mental health.
Fist bumps instead of handshakes lack the sincerity of time well-spent with your golfing companions but will do for the time being. Putting with the flagstick in the hole has helped convince me that it makes little difference in putts holed. No rakes in the bunkers actually guarantees a perfect lie as most courses have adopted a local rule of allowing you to place the ball out of footprints or other imperfections. No excuses now for having a shoddy bunker game.
You lose some of the camaraderie by riding one player per cart, but it does has the advantage of faster rounds. Another advantage has been the increase in the number of players walking. Walking is by far the best way to enjoy the game but unfortunately, many courses today are not walker friendly because of difficult topography or the great distance between greens and tees. It is refreshing to play a classic layout in which the teeing ground is but a few yards from the previous putting surface. This proximity does add some danger and a little excitement at times with errant incoming shots from the group playing behind you but a refreshing change of pace from the long cart rides nonetheless.
When venturing out for a nine-hole round, I have found that carrying my bag with just 7 or 8 clubs is a wonderful way to enjoy a stroll around the course. It has also proven something to be true that I have always suspected; I usually score the same with 8 clubs as I do with 14. So why do I always carry 14? Like everyone else, they are my security blanket. If the rules allowed 16, I am sure that I would stuff two more unnecessary clubs in my bag. We golfers do many silly and unexplainable things in the hopes of shooting a score lower than what we are capable.
Because of the pandemic, like thousands of other golfers, my wife and I curtailed our traveling this year but again, it was a blessing of sorts. Even though a spring buddy trip to Alabama was scrapped and our trip to Montana, Banff and Jasper was cancelled, we played much more local golf with our friends on our home courses in Ohio. What I missed in playing new courses in far away locations was more than made up for in the fun that comes from the banter and time spent with good friends at our local golf hangouts.
With a vaccine now being distributed, it looks as if 2021 might bring a return to a more normal time on the golf course, but if we are honest with ourselves, some of the lessons we learned in 2020 may be worth carrying on as we return to the links after the pandemic. Hopefully, this will lead to more travel, more new courses to experience and more blog posts about this great game of golf.
Share This:
