Why I Golf
The pandemic has changed many things but golf remains mostly the same which is somewhat comforting. I used to go golfing with my dad and his buddies as a little kid and if I had started swinging a club back then, I might be on the PGA tour right now, or at least a better ball striker. I had no interest at the time and went just to be with my dad and hang out with the big boys. But. Something must have sunk a hook into me.
I used to sell fake orange juice out of a storage locker in Virginia Beach (don’t ask) and the guy next door to me had a shop set up in his locker where he repaired scales. His name was John Potts, he was probably 70 at the time and he kept telling me that I needed to start playing golf. He was a funny old guy so the next time I was at my dad’s place I asked him if he had any clubs I could borrow. He gave me the same clubs he used when I tagged along as a little kid.
I went to the driving range a few times without a clue, smacked some balls off the mat and felt I was ready to take on John Potts, the scale repair man. We made a golf date which turned into three miserable hours of me watching this old geezer knock balls into the fairway while he drank whiskey out of a pint bottle he kept in his back pocket. I lost several balls, a sand wedge and promptly quit the game forever. Or so I thought.
