The New Road

My life and golf

I've gotten back into golf in a big way. Lori would probably say that it's the way that I get into all things; as an obsession. But, sure, while there is the obsession part of it, I think this is actually physically cathartic.

I have had a twisty relationship with golf. I can remember the courses that I took at Rolling Green Golf Club (and here) when I was six with a group of other kids all lined up around the green doing practice pitches. Getting the little gold stars with my junior clubs and playing with them until I was 12 or so. I think I had a reasonably good swing then.

Then I went to Miami and I played with friends and co-workers with rented clubs. And those clubs were a lot shorter than what I needed so I had no end of troubles with missing the ball, hooks, slices, the whole bit. So I stopped trying to use the driver and chopped my swing in half, so that I could even make contact with the ball properly.

Which lead me to my relationship with golf over the past ten years or so. Which is to go out to the range about twice a year, and play with mom once a year, and get angry and frustrated about my swing and the ability to hit the ball strait. And over these years I have layered on this crust of crap onto both the mental and physical parts of the game.

And recently over my past visits to the range I've been just popping off these crusty bits and it feels great. I might actually have my game back. I might actually be good at this. Obviously not Tiger good, but good enough to gave a fun time with the game again and to really enjoy it.

This may sound silly, but it feels to me like I'm reconnecting with that six year old kid standing on the side of the green every time I step up to swing. And it seems like I cracking all of the crap off of that connection and that I'll be a stronger person for it.