With Winter holding on for dear life in our beloved Northeast city, the Casco Bay Sports team decided to flee for some sunshine in a 30 plus version of Spring break. Where do four middle aged, crippled athletes go for 3 days? Cancun? Daytona Beach? San Diego? Get Real! Wilmington, North Carolina had everything we needed: Sports Leagues, cheap beer, fried green tomatoes, golden tee, spelling bees and finally endless golf courses. When averaging 36 holes a day, one tends to develop trends in their golf game. Here are a few I noticed during my time down there.
“The Tee Box Waggle.” Of course this is not a new tradition in the game. However, most of us where taking a little more time to line up and pick a direction this particular morning. A visit to a brand new city meant many new brewery's to sample. As Portlanders, we had a strong approach to this type of outing. Yet a few of us might have had one too many picklebacks coupled with vicious golden tee drives. Either way, after a few breakfast balls and ice packs for everyone’s golden tee "playing hand", we all started the round straight into the fairway.
“The Lunch Ball.” A new tradition amongst players might have been born at Echo Falls Municipal. When you tee up for an additional 18 holes with the wind against you one must simply announce in the tee box: “LUNCH BALL” Then proceed to lay up to start the next round. It’s fine as long as everyone else is doing it.
“The Updated 44.” From now on when someone asks what you scored on the last 3 holes, respond with “just mark me down for a 44 bub.”
“Down $10 with 280 yards to go.” Accepting a bet on the last par 5 of the day is fairly common in most groups. However, the fact that both players called 10 strokes would win the hole preaches extreme confidence in each other's ability. And yes, it was me laying 9 strokes with 200 plus to the pin.
“Desert Walk with a 3 Iron.” Remember to bring a camelbak when your champion's cart teammate drops you off with 300 yards to the pin in the middle of the Adobe. Nevertheless, the best 3 iron in history was hit from the dunes and even received a compliment from a nice lady on the adjacent hole. But all I really needed was a glass of water lady.
Luckily the competitive Casco Bays Sports Golf League at historic Riverside Municipal is less than 3 weeks away. I feel comfortable that I can eliminate most of these trends in just 9 scoring holes, but why worry IT’S JUST GOLF!
Crod
