The beginning of golf season can be like a horse race. Everyone wants to be the first one out of the gate.
It’s about who played the first round in the rain, snow, or wind. It’s not even who played the best but who endured mother nature’s wrath as the first group out after the local golf course opens.
That is true Montana golf as I have been introduced to it. It’s not for everybody, but, for the addicted, it’s almost a right of passage.
Most of the time the weather improves quickly, however the golf game doesn’t always follow suit.
Excuses follow, and so do the crazy rituals!
Tall tales ring throughout the club house—how Bob almost hit this bird in the tree directly right of the first tee, and how Mark has a new goofy way of putting while standing pigeon-toed, which he swears by. Jack even whiffed the ball completely and fell down.
Oh the stories. Young and old. The golf addicts are renewed and at it again!
Spring slowly inched by with days filled with rain and golfers longing for the course, practicing, playing, trying to recapture that silky smooth swing from the previous fall. They applied all the gobble-de-gook they learned watching YouTube golf-training videos that filled their inbox during the off-season.
Thus is the life of those addicted to golf. What about the stretching and exercising I wrote about all winter? At 48 degrees Fahrenheit and three layers on, I’m convinced it could have been wasted time! But colder days turn warmer, the grass starts growing, the golf course turns green, and, low and behold, us golfers find our groove.
Putts start to go in, drives find their way down the fairway, the sun starts to shine, and the addicted feel a moment or two of bliss.
Summer is here, a time of long evenings filled with golf! Some days there is enough light for a day of work and a day of golf all tied into one. Why not? It seems so easy to swing a club when the sun shines on your back and a cold beer refreshes your spirit.
Of course, the clubhouse stories continue. Outlandish recaps of the golf grind.
It’s such a hard game, but it produces so many positive and memorable moments. I find it’s a camaraderie unlike any other. It breaks barriers of age, race, and sex. Golf is hard. We all love to share our addiction and feel the ups and downs others have experienced.
Those clubhouse stories, they are very therapeutic! It’s all part of the golf experience.
If you don’t know it, try it. If you do have your own stories, share them.
For the golf-addicted, it’s the greatest time of year. Golf courses are open. The weather is getting warmer every day. It’s time to get the clubs out and play some golf! MSN
