It’s About the Doing

Special Guest Contributor Mark O. checks in with his tribute to Father’s Day, the golfing obsession, and Angelina Jolie. And yes, “Deadliest Catch” is an awesome show.

With this weekend being the annual Father’s Day / U.S. Open extravaganza I can’t help but think about my own golfing adventures. I love to play golf. I love to watch golf. I’ll skip sex to go play golf. I prefer to watch the final round of any of the four major golf tournaments to watching the Super Bowl. I’d even miss American Idol to play golf but luckily it’s too dark to play when Idol is on. With that said, I’m no good. My friends say I swing like Lee Trevino except without the positive results. My handicap is barely measurable…somewhere around 30. But I love it. I read all the magazines, watch the Golf Channel, and spend hours browsing at Golfsmith and Golf Galaxy. I know what the hottest new driver is and what’s in Padraig Harrington’s bag (Wilson Staff Pd5 driver, Callaway Big Bertha 3W and Steelhead 5W, Wilson Staff Pi5 irons and a Wilson Staff Kc4 putter. ProV1x’s). I actually care that Elin Woods is having a baby and hope it’s a boy so he can grow up to be as rich as his father and then marry my daughter.

Here’s my point. I know that I’ll probably never break 80. With a lot more time and effort I hope to get to the 90’s consistently. But that’s it, I have no illusions. I don’t have the time or money to expect anything more than that. So, while I know what the hottest new driver is, I don’t own one. While I know that you can play famous courses like Pebble Beach and Spyglass and Bethpage because they’re open to the public, I don’t. I play with average equipment at municipal courses and still, I have fun. Would I like a new set TaylorMade R7 Draw irons and a Callaway FT-i driver? Sure. But it would be a waste of money. Would I like to play Augusta National or Pinehurst? Of course, but would I really enjoy it the way I should? Nope, because I’d be thinking to myself, “Hey dumbass, you can hit a ball into the trees/lake/trap/parking lot at the local muni for about 1/100th of what you’re paying to play here!” For me it’s like that Kevin Costner baseball movie For the Love of the Game. That’s why I play. That’s why I’ll always play.

So now, I’m talking with my golfing buddy who by the way, is good enough to play Pebble, and he tells me that he was talking to this other guy we know about playing golf with us. As I said, we usually play three or four times a month at our local municipal courses. If we get the opportunity to play in outings or charity events through work, great. Those are about the only times we play at the better courses in the area…when someone else is paying for it! Anyhow, we thought we would ask this guy to play with us sometime. His kids go to school with ours and our wives are all part of the same group of friends. Seemed like a good idea. So last week my buddy tells him we have a tee time on the weekend and did he want to join us? You know what he said? He said that since he doesn’t have the time to play very often he only likes to play nice courses. He doesn’t want to waste his time playing average courses. What a load of crap. That’s like saying I don’t get to watch much baseball on TV so I only watch the World Series. Or I don’t get to go out to dinner very often so I’ll only go to Ruth’s Chris. Or I don’t get to have sex very often so I only want to do Angelina Jolie. Ok, maybe that one’s a good rule. But in most cases if you have something in your life that you like to do isn’t it more about the doing than where you do it? If you like to play tennis do you sit at home waiting for your chance to play at Wimbledon or do you go to the high school and play there? If you like to fish do you go down to the local pond and throw your line in or do you wait for an invite to work on one of those crab boats on The Deadliest Catch? (Side note…isn’t that an awesome show?).
Maybe when I win the lottery my attitude will change. For now though I’m taking my average clubs to the average course and having a great time. And maybe tonight I’ll ask my wife if I can call her Angelina…hmmm.