Observations Part 17: Your Freedom... Does it matter what you shoot?

Old Greenwood: A Jack Nicholas designed course near Lake Tahoe

My golf game is terrible. I mean, I truly suck at playing golf. No matter what I do, what tip I bring into my arsenal, no matter which set of clubs, lessons I take or all that practice on the driving range does not matter to my game. I truly am pathetic.

In the last two weekends I have played a good share of golf. I played in two Thursdays back, here in Sacramento, played last Saturday at Old Brockway in North Lake Tahoe and got to play Old Greenwood featured on top. I played Friday night here again in Sacramento, played 9 yesterday at some rinky dink course down in the 'hood of south Sacramento and finally, I have a tee time today at 2:30 at Bartley Cavanuagh. So what's all this mean? I feel as if I am throwing money into pure torture and yet I keep going. I like to think of my golf score as a series of 9 holes to which I am shooting into the upper 50's. That's right I am no where near 100 on 18. It doesn't matter if its a $10 Twilight green fee or a $180 excursion in the Sierra Nevada, my score is always the same.

Let's rationalize this for a minute. Golf is a challenging sport. Duh! Look at rules. You have to hit a little ball, 200-300, ok as much as 500 yards down a big chunk of sprawling grass to a little piece of heaven called a "green". Along the way you'll see many different environments. If your lucky, mostly you'll see fairways, or what I call the easy routes. Somes your in the rough, less frequently mowed grass. Behind some trees. And then my favorites, the bunkers of sand. Pure torture if your not hitting correctly. Finally you reach your destination, the green. Green's for the most part in Sacramento, due to the heat, are not as green as you'd think, but they work. Once there on the green, 2-4, sometimes 8 strokes later, you have another demanding test of wit. Your putting. Putting on the green and driving off the tee are two opposite events of gold. You could dead on off the tee, the suck completely on the green. That "Driving for show, putting for dough" saying means everything to a golfer. So what happens when both are off? You get my scorecard, a series of numbers that look way more appealling to a bowler than a golfer.

"The American Flag"

It's an expensive hobby really. A way to get out, and get some exercise and not rot in front of a computer, blogging like I am doing now. It's also freedom. There are new rules when you are out there that are quite different to your home, your job or even a other social events like going to a restaurant or a family party. You have your own ettiquette that most golfer's follow. You are also free from other things if you want, like politics, crime, social issues and what not. When you are golfing you have no worries accept your score. High or low it does not matter in the grand scheme of things. It's your day, you are in command and you are in control. You also defend your freedom quite frankly. A guy like me or my buddies makes the decision to go golf. The wives really stay out of it, and actually encourage it. What a great freedom we enjoy.

I went out today to get some balls for golfing. I like hitting cheap balls because they are easily lost with my vicious hook. (My hook is a draw when it hits the fairway, when it goes off the fairway it's a hook) Today though while standing in line at the register at Copeland's Sports, I saw something intriguing while contemplating whether I was paying cash or use the ATM. An American Flag golf towel. It was awesome and they were almost sold out. I didn't buy the flag towel but I stood and stared. America is full of freedoms. Freedom speech, religion and the right to enjoy a damn fine day golfing. I found it eerie though that one would be wiping his golf clubs off with an American Flag and the issues surrounding the desecration of a flag. But then I thought about it longer, while driving the Porsche home with the top off. What a cool thing to have? An American Flag on your golf bag. Golf Courses can be quite beautiful and are a place that not one political entity could ever demolish as being a bad place. A place to just be free. God what a great thing. I am going back to buy the flag towel. I am sure American Flag will understand while I wipe the sand off my pitching wedge.