When Max and I started dating it took me a long time to stop asking needy questions : Are you happy? What are you thinking about? Are we OK? Guys just don’t like it.
Rob is his usual serious and quiet self as we sit and wait on the tee box. I AM happy !!! I really should know better than to ask !
We had some tears out there. A few of his, a lot from a playing partner, none from me. Funnily enough he usually never cries but suddenly his game is going well, score looking cautiously optimistic and a chunked 5 iron turns on water-works. Expectations must be managed !
We wait quite substantially between holes and spend the time feeding crackers to fish and watching deer dart in and out the woods. There are worse places to wait around !
Rob filled his water bottle and drenched his glove. We changed gloves and clipped the wet one to his bag to dry. Be prepared for water hazards wherever they may be on a golf course.
On Hole 8 I give him alignment instructions for the first time during the round and he puts it completely opposite to where he was aiming. Deep rough and deeply annoyed. This is the last time you are going to give me ANY instructions!
I am slowly realizing that, as in most areas of life, it is important to have faith. As a caddy mostly you have to have faith in your player. I walk around the course with his bag (well actually for the last 2 rounds I have rented a cart and driven in the intense heat and humidity that is summer golf) always with a heightened level of stress caused probably by the disconnect between my perception of his abilities and my expectations. The fact that I couldn’t make these shots (well some I could !) doesn’t mean he can’t. And he seems to make them easier when I care that little bit less.
Out on the course Rob connects happily with his playing partners. I watch them wandering along in close and cheerful conversation and I realize that this is where I find my ‘happy’ out here.
Best I find it somewhere – because it is not in any thanks I get for attempting to line him up on the tee box for a straight shot up the fairway !