I was Mom on the Practice Bag today. Rob tee’d off at 8:26 am which means a 5 am weekend wake up to get the dogs walked and everyone up and dressed, bags, coolers, carts, Starbucks drive-thru ……… Mistake to give the coolers to Rob to walk from kitchen to car. They did not make it.
A misty, rainy morning, contrary to the weather forecast, turned into a misty, rainy afternoon. Max walked the 9 muddy holes with Rob who played well except for 2 big holes from a couple of wayward shots. I watched him come up the 9th – an up-hill dog-leg, as Bear and I approached the 1st tee. His approach shot landed 2 feet from the pin and he parred the hole, finishing strong. Max walked off 9 and straight back on to 1. This is what a Golf Dad does. There are worse places to walk 8 miles in a morning. I offered to get him a quick hot-dog and catch up to him on the course. He is not a fan (bad experience with an under-done dog in Centennial Park once) and declined.
Rob came off with 45 and a skip in his step. He also had to query a score on Hole 3 at the scorer’s table: his drive had landed in a water run-off area surrounded by rocks. It was not marked as a hazard. Lift, clean and place rule was in effect which he and Max duly did and placed the ball out of the water within 1 club length. The question was whether this was a penalty (ie. was it in fact a hazard – in which case lift, clean and placing the ball would not have been an option). Turns out no.
Bear looked very solid on the practice range and it translated into a solid 75.
A solid 75 that took 6 hours in the rain. 6 hours of Rob playing pool in the clubhouse with a rotating flow of players and a sibling or two in the same predicament as us. 6 hours of me drinking tea and binge-reading magazines stockpiled for a rainy day. Not an unpleasant afternoon.
A quote by the Dalai Lama jumped out of an article titled ‘Dangerous Writing – Go To Your Battlefield’ : “when you meet someone and you look that person in the eye, be kind, because within those eyes is a great battle waging.”
The battlefield that is the golf course is full of soldiers. Beautifully color-co-ordinated, athletic soldiers each waging an internal war with their confidence and caddy.
Be kind to your golfer. It is a difficult game.
Be kind to your fellow-caddy – many do this out of love, and not necessarily of the game; their own battles on hold till the day is done, no matter how long it takes. In Max’s case approaching 8 1/2 hours already. I bet that hot-dog is not sounding too bad at this point!
But wait! Two other boys shoot 75 and we’re headed to a play-off….. Rob and I find a cart and a little procession of spectators heads back out to hole 10 to watch. As stressful as play-offs might be for the players, they engender rather a festive spirit in the onlookers.
3 holes later with a putt that breaks slightly more than intended Bear sends us home, 11 hours after we arrived.
Be kind. It’s been a long day.
