This afternoon around 2pm, it dawned on me that with no immediate work demands, the kids safe with relatives and the sun beating down, I really should be playing golf.
The planets don't align so perfectly very often. So instead of sitting in the office twiddling thumbs and waiting for some task or other to present itself; thus scuppering the opportunity to play golf, I seized the moment.
I gave my good friend Bill Bailey at Sudden Valley a call and, within half an hour, was stood on the 1st tee waiting for the fairway to clear.
How absolutely perfect a day for golf it was. I hope you were able to get out for nine at least because I'm not sure conditions could have been any better - 70 degrees or thereabouts and a very slight breeze rolling in off the lake. What's more, the course was in fine condition, the greens as good as any I've putted on all year (granted today's round was only my third since 1/1/10).
The fact that I played really badly came as no surprise whatsoever so didn't spoil the afternoon one bit. Bill didn't play as well as I know he can either but, like me, he was just enjoying the weather and the scenery too much to care.
Tomorrow morning at 11.30 I go for the first of eight golf-specific training sessions at Anytime Fitness on Cordata Parkway. I'm a little apprehensive to be honest. Yes, I stretch 15 minutes on my bedroom floor every day and try to do 20 minutes on the exercise bike next to my desk four or five times a week. But being inside an actual gym surrounded by actually fit people will probably make me feel rather inadequate.
Still, by the end of the course, I'm hoping the facility's owner Anthony Hamilton will have turned my 225-yard puff balls into acceptable 250-yard cannons that enable me to keep up with Bill Bailey. It's about way more than just adding a few yards to one's drives though; it's about being able to play more golf (should the opportunity ever arise again) and avoid walking in off the 18th green feeling so horribly spent.
I'll keep you updated on how it goes.
