Minnesota golfing

Jeff and I decided to escape this weekend. We both took Friday off and took a leisurely trip up to Minneapolis. We have some friends who were performing Oklahoma with a community theater so we came up to watch. But Friday we drove most of the way up and the stopped for golf. Jeff had wanted to play in Owatonna but when we got there we found that the course was a country club. So we decided to just drive up the cities to play. Well that didn't last. We got to Faribault and he made a snap decision to see if they had a public course. A couple minutes at the gas station and he had found one and gotten directions. 

The course was off a gravel road which should have told us something. We arrived at the course to find 8 people there. Two guys out playing, a father and son playing, one guy cleaning up the range, two guys at the bar, and a bartender/pro. We walk in and she looks at us questioningly, "You want to play golf?" As if that just doesn't happen here...at this golf course. We say yeah. 

"9 or 18". 

"18" 

"Okay that'll be..." and she turned around to the rates sheets tacked up behind the bar, "18 each?" She asked this like it was negotiable. Now I've never seen a course where you could haggle over rates. Then again, when we called and couldn't make a tee-time that should have been indication that this course didn't see a lot of traffic. 

We paid (cash) and went out to the course. Now for anyone who has read Rick Reilly's funny book "Missing Links", this was that course. There was no rusting 57 Chevy but it was close. The ball bounced on putts. The course was actually only 9 holes (with complementary 10th) so you played the holes twice. Sadly I was so dehydrated after the first 10 that we called it quits. The roughs were rough, the fairways were patchy and the greens were similar to fairways I've been on. But Jeff and I had a blast. The course was so informal that we didn't worry about doing regulation drops when the ball went into the rough. We played out of the water (okay the water was actually in the sand trap so we figured that was okay) We played fast and furious and didn't worry much about etiquette. It just didn't seem required at the course. And I have to admit while we replaced our divots most of the time it just didn't seem necessary to use the divot tool on the greens. Maybe it was that clump of clover. 

Golf

So I'm watching the British Open and am amazed to see Greg Norman leading the pack. Not that he is not an amazing golfer but that he is playing as well as he is in the weather that they have. I've become something of a duffer recently. I'm starting to enjoy the game and actually wanting to play. Jeff and I have been trying to play twice a month and I'm seeing steady improvement. That said I would not want to play in the weather that the British Open is enjoying. :-) 

The thing about golf is that if you are not a player it is a tough sport to watch. You have little idea of how hard it is to play at the level that these professionals play at. Before I played I kept thinking how easy it would be to do some of those chip shots. Now I look at those beautiful chips where they land two feet from the hole and am jealous. I only make those shots as a fluke. They make them on a regular basis. 

Now I am impressed the Norman is able to compete with the younger boys but that is the beauty of golf. You can actually get better as you get older. So many sports only have an upper age limit. A 35 year old football player is getting up there. A 40 year old baseball player is considered old. An 18 year old may be too old to be a gymnast. But golf you can play until you are 90 and no one bats an eye. 

Everyone tells me I'm old because I play both bridge and golf. I figure I'm just starting early. These are games I'll be playing decades from now. And the bonus is that I'll have a couple more years of experience. And since Jeff and I walk and carry our clubs I get a great workout out of 18 holes of golf. Win-win.