Golfer's Delight

I'd love to shoot my age (82) for 18 holes. Maybe if I live to be 99, I just might shoot my age. The last major golf tournament was held on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. The final hole was crucial. One golfer bogeyed the hole forcing a three-way playoff. But . . .

Just when it counted the most, he teed off right smack into the middle of the crowd. His ball was lying in the dirt where the onlookers had trampled for days. He had a decent lie, aimed in the direction of the green but his ball had a mind of its own and ended in the thick grass. He then put the ball within a few feet of the pin but missed the would-be winning putt.

When he turned in his score, the officials approached him saying he had put his club down behind the ball only to discover to his dismay (and mine) that his ball was in a bunker. That cost him two strokes. I saw the setting and it was anything but a typical sand trap.

Not familiar with the ruling, I checked my 2010-2011 The Rules of Golf. It boasts 182 pages of rules and regulations, penalties and restrictions, playable clubs and a host of other information. But nowhere could I find that specific rule. The next day our small-town daily actually published two articles. Then I understood. In a sand trap you can't put your club down behind the ball because it just might move the sand in your favor.

So, now I know. We live and learn. It only took me 82 years to learn this rule. Imagine how long it will take me to master all 182 pages. \

Golf we're told is both mental and physical. This is often obvious when a player is in the lead and then at the end blows it. It happens. That maybe is why only a tiny per cent of golfers shoot par. However, for some of us, we can set our own par (mentally) and play against that rather than the ones set by professionals.

Besides, we don't have to be built like Superman or have the speed of a gazelle for our ¾ swing. In fact, I think more matches are won on the green than on the fairways with those new-fangled monster drivers. Long live the lowly putter.