Tony D’Annunzio: What do you got in here, rocks?
Al Czervik: Are you kiddin’? When I was your age, I would lug fifty pounds of ice up five, six flights of stairs!
Tony D’Annunzio: So what?
Al Czervik: So what? [opens compartment in golf bag, revealing radio] So let’s dance! [turns on Journey's "Any Way You Want It," ]
– Caddyshack 1980
I have personally witnessed a former co-worker of mine hit himself in the nose with ball twice in the same round. I laughed when a non-golfing friend showed up to a bachelor party golf outing with woods actually made of wood – then cried when he shot a 92. I’ve snuck onto a course in the middle of the night and played a round of drunk tiki-torch golf, only to realize that one in our group had passed out on the 6th fairway- we realized he was missing after we finished hole 13. I can’t play a round without asking the ball “why he didn’t like his home?” My buddies still bring up my shot that broke the cart hub cap into a million pieces, the time my cart rolled into the lake, or that time the club flew out of my hands on the driving range and I saw in slow motion people dropping to the ground one by one in downtown Miami-style fashion as a five iron flew over their heads.
I have also been witness to an elderly gentleman suffering a heart attack on the second green of his neighborhood county club – a stone plaque now stands to remind everyone of his love of the game and that he left this world doing what he loved.
This is golf.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a scratch golfer with your name on a trophy in your home course clubhouse, or that twice a year player that can impress a military sniper and take out a person 300 yards on the parallel fairway, golf lives in every player. For some it’s the desire to improve their game, for others the simple joy of dreaming about teeing up at Torrey Pines with Phil while commuting to work each morning. Either way, our moments on the course (alone or with friends) keep the game of golf alive. Knocking out a winning score is great, but laughing over beers and reminiscing about the time three years ago you lost your footing shooting from a hazard and rolled down an embankment Chris Farley style is pure golf (how I wish this wasn’t based off actual events).
You can always brag about your lowest round or that almost hole-in-one that broke your heart, but when everything comes full circle, it’s the fun and embarrassments that you experience on the course that keeps your love of golf endeavoring on. No matter how good or bad you shoot during a round, it never gets old to ask your friend if he wants anything from the cart girl as he’s going to the bathroom in the woods off the fairway.
Keith
