Dear Jim:
Well it has been a while and I’m getting a lot of pressure to update you on my Golf. People are cruel and seem to love hearing about my misfortunes so here goes.
As you know I like records and I set one yesterday in a mini-competition where I was paired with someone else’s spouse in an attempt to win a Canada day prize. The worst score I have ever recorded for 9 holes was 54. This occurred on the very first day I played at RMGC in 1981. Since then I have spent roughly $20,000 and two thousand hours on fine tuning my body and game to improve, becoming the experienced player you see in front of you today, 32 years later.
Yesterday I shot 57 on the front 9 of the Blue. It would have been worse had I not had a few good holes in the middle.
As I passed the pro-shop to the back nine an exorcism occurred for no apparent reason and on the back nine I stood on the 18th hole needing a 4 to post a 43.
Now for the past 3 years I have hit that tee shot in to the water on the left every time and I was determined not to repeat with so much on the line. I aimed waaaaay right, weakened my grip and decided to just punch out a short drive. The swing occurred in 4 separate, unrelated motions with both feet being off the ground on impact. The ball went due left without a whiff of a curve in either direction and landed in the middle of the ducks swimming along following my play. I carded a 7 and headed in to the 19th hole.
My partner, who is used to winning, looked depressed and I asked her what the problem was. She said that she was really upset that she didn’t clear the water on the 16th hole. I told her that I didn’t care then, I don’t care now and no one you discuss this with will care either. I think she was looking for a little more sympathy than I was capable of at that moment and she vowed never to play with me again. That kind of capped off the day and I picked up my prize for most honest golfer and went home.
Today I’m not golfing because I sprained my right wrist when I dug a 6 inch trench with my Driver on the 3rd hole and my left elbow is still twanging from a 7 iron shot that caused the blade of the club to disappear in to the fairway. There is no bottle of divot repair material large enough, that would have been possible to carry, for the hole filling required. I won’t even describe my back pain except to say I expect to be able to stand upright around Wednesday. If I went to the club today and people asked “how are you”? I know they wouldn’t have time for the full assessment and prognosis so I will hide out here at home.
There is more to life than golf, you say. In that spirit and not wanting to let a beautiful day go by I decided to go on a 30 mile bike ride at 6 am this morning. After being passed by at least a 100 other cyclists I decided that I was going to keep up with a 78 year old Grandmother who passed me going up cardiac hill. The pain in my left knee is indicating replacement surgery.
So, sorry for not keeping you up to date on my golf but any further updates will be in the nature of a medical bulletin.
Sally has given me a list of things to do around the house for the rest of the day so I decided that a snooze was in order. Hopefully, tomorrow will be more fun.
I’ll keep you posted.
Bill Meder
