Understanding Golf

“Golf is a lot of walking, broken up by disappointment and bad arithmetic.”  Jonathan Montoya, musican

 

The smile:

 

I’m not much of a golfer. Well let’s rephrase that. Wii “Tiger Woods” I can play all day. Chasing a little white ball for hours on end…it is someone else’s game. My brother is on the other end of the spectrum. He enjoys a good game whenever he can. I can appreciate his love of the game. Ever so occasionally he will coerce me onto the course, normally if he will agree to stay out of my kitchen.

One afternoon I wasn’t having the best of days. He convinced me to go to the driving range to shed some frustration. We each had a basket of scratch and dent balls, which I quickly settled into murdering with my club. The joke is I can hit it far…to the left or to the right. (Note to other non-golfers: it seems those guys always want to hit the ball straight. How dull is that?!?)

We took a break after a number of drives. We found a couple of metal chairs to sit and relax, when he produced this golf ball he had been carrying in his pocket. He held it up to the sunlight like it was the Hope diamond. He turned and admired it. I didn’t see anything unusual about it.  He explained, “This is the ball you need.  You can’t lose it. See these little shiny dimples? If you hit this ball in high grass or some other rough, it will shine so you can see it.”

I shook my head in thoughtful agreement as he continued, “You can hit this ball into a water trap and it will float.”

“That is pretty cool,” I agreed. “Where did you get it?”

He studied the ball in admiration a few more seconds and answered, “I found it.”

 

The ponder:

 Do you have a brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, husband, wife, friend-girl, guy friend, in-law, outlaw? HUG ‘EM! They are going to say something that makes you wonder where their brain is and it doesn’t make you less of a man or independent person or whatever you think is important. If it doesn’t make you think, do it again….

 

The Fudoshin Challenge:

Dude, it is cold outside. Ice is everywhere.  Karate class was cancelled and there was no weight training. I took the day off.