"Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last."
Many people think Martin Luther King created this statement. In fact his writers stole it from golfers, with handicaps of 18 or more, who scream this refrain as they clean out their lockers at the end of every season.
I peaked mid July when I pared two holes in a row for the first time in two years. From there each game became worse than the last and I was able to add 3 strokes to my handicap. I won’t tell you what it is as the season comes to an end but most millennials don’t get married until they reach this age.
I tried a few new things and learned a bit as well.
A big innovation for me was to equip my clubs with a tracking system attached to my IPHONE that gave me the distance of every club in the bag and averaged the results over the past 40 games.
The results were very interesting.
My Driver, 4 wood, 5 wood, 7 wood, 4 hybrid, and 6 hybrid all go 171-173 yards on average.
My Pitching wedge, Sand wedge, Gap Wedge and Lob wedge all go 60-62 yards.
My 7 iron and 9 iron both go 130 yards and my 8 iron didn’t register because most of the shots I hit with it went in the water.
So the take home from this effort is to stop using the system. I am removing all hardware and software and next year will carry 4 clubs. No bag and no cart, just carry them loose in my hand. Very easy and much less expensive than cart rentals.
I bought 4 dozen golf balls at the beginning of the season and only lost 1. Not counting the 47 that I put in the water. I couldn’t hit it far enough to lose sight of and always saw where it landed and ended up resting after I hit it regardless of the club. So next year I’m going to buy 1 good ball and a few dozen from Costco for water holes.
I used to start counting down the holes left to play around number 13. This year I was quietly hoping someone would hurt themselves after 9 so we could quit then. Next year we can use our phones for texting and such and hopefully that will provide entertainment during the last few holes.
Jim, if any of your friends who are not golfers are reading this, here is a safety tip. If anyone pretending to be your friend suggests that you take up the game you need to terminate that friendship immediately. They are trying to make you miserable for a significant portion of your remaining life, and can’t be trusted!
At any rate, I’m looking forward to next spring to see if I’m alive, and if so will I ever break 90 again.
Have a great winter in Florida. Sorry you have to continue golfing.
Regards,
Bill
Bill
(514) 992-2916
