Ken
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A Walk, With Golf Clubs, Down Memory Lane
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Wednesday was a fairly mild November day, certainly by Buffalo standards. The temperature was in the high 50’s, sunny, but windy (20 mph or so). With the weekend forecast for snow, I figured this might be my last chance for a round of golf this season. The local municipal course was closed for the season, but a little farther down the road was an Erie County golf course, Grover Cleveland Golf Course, that was still open for play.
The course is short (5,621 yards, par 69) and nothing special, but for November golf in Buffalo, it was certainly adequate. Before you scoff at the course’s “compactness”, you need to know that a century ago it was the site of The Country Club of Buffalo (before it relocated) and more importantly, it was host to the 1912 U.S. Open. This is certainly not your typical municipal golf course. Despite its “shortness”, the course is no pushover; the greens are small and they are undulating. If you have a putt over flat terrain you have hit some fine short irons. My short irons weren’t that fine on Wednesday. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t fine.
I had a few golf courses that I could have chosen for my final round of the year, but I wanted to get in the round at Grover. It has a bit of sentimental meaning to me. When I relocated to Buffalo from Ohio over 40 years ago, this course was where I played my first rounds of golf in western New York. It was a unique layout, and being a (very) public course, there were unique individuals. This was my first time playing the course in nearly 40 years.
As I remember, several decades ago, one fellow competitor took great pride that he did not have a wood in his bag; he teed off with a driving iron. (that’s a tough club to hit well). He was absolutely certain that “he could hit the ball as well with the driving iron as everyone else could with their driver” (he couldn’t) and could score as well as everyone else (he didn’t). No matter, we all have our foibles.
Another gentleman that I golfed with was good natured and as we batted the balls down the fairway I noticed that he had a bit of a limp. Despite that infirmity, on his back-swing he planted his right (rear) leg, loaded his right side and made a pretty good rotation through impact; he was a good golfer. Only later in the round did I notice (and through conversation) that he was a combat veteran who had suffered an injury and had a lower prosthetic leg that he literally “planted” when he addressed the ball. The striking thing is that 40 years have passed, and I still remember his “it’s no big deal” demeanor on the course.
It was a nice day to reminisce about rounds from 40 years ago. Sometimes you need to circle back to previous experiences, since they are probably touchstones in your life.
On a less sentimental note, as I was walking to the 10th tee, there was a sign stating that “pace of play to this point should be 2 hours, 15 minutes”, which implied a 4:30 round of golf. As a single, with no one in front of me, I played my round in 2 hours, 10 minutes. That is my fastest 18 holes (walking/carrying) ever.
If Urban Meyer wants to talk “uptempo”, he needs to give me a call.
The post A Walk, With Golf Clubs, Down Memory Lane appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
Ken via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Wednesday was a fairly mild November day, certainly by Buffalo standards. The temperature was in the high 50’s, sunny, but windy (20 mph or so). With the weekend forecast for snow, I figured this might be my last chance for a round of golf this season. The local municipal course was closed for the season, but a little farther down the road was an Erie County golf course, Grover Cleveland Golf Course, that was still open for play.
The course is short (5,621 yards, par 69) and nothing special, but for November golf in Buffalo, it was certainly adequate. Before you scoff at the course’s “compactness”, you need to know that a century ago it was the site of The Country Club of Buffalo (before it relocated) and more importantly, it was host to the 1912 U.S. Open. This is certainly not your typical municipal golf course. Despite its “shortness”, the course is no pushover; the greens are small and they are undulating. If you have a putt over flat terrain you have hit some fine short irons. My short irons weren’t that fine on Wednesday. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t fine.
I had a few golf courses that I could have chosen for my final round of the year, but I wanted to get in the round at Grover. It has a bit of sentimental meaning to me. When I relocated to Buffalo from Ohio over 40 years ago, this course was where I played my first rounds of golf in western New York. It was a unique layout, and being a (very) public course, there were unique individuals. This was my first time playing the course in nearly 40 years.
As I remember, several decades ago, one fellow competitor took great pride that he did not have a wood in his bag; he teed off with a driving iron. (that’s a tough club to hit well). He was absolutely certain that “he could hit the ball as well with the driving iron as everyone else could with their driver” (he couldn’t) and could score as well as everyone else (he didn’t). No matter, we all have our foibles.
Another gentleman that I golfed with was good natured and as we batted the balls down the fairway I noticed that he had a bit of a limp. Despite that infirmity, on his back-swing he planted his right (rear) leg, loaded his right side and made a pretty good rotation through impact; he was a good golfer. Only later in the round did I notice (and through conversation) that he was a combat veteran who had suffered an injury and had a lower prosthetic leg that he literally “planted” when he addressed the ball. The striking thing is that 40 years have passed, and I still remember his “it’s no big deal” demeanor on the course.
It was a nice day to reminisce about rounds from 40 years ago. Sometimes you need to circle back to previous experiences, since they are probably touchstones in your life.
On a less sentimental note, as I was walking to the 10th tee, there was a sign stating that “pace of play to this point should be 2 hours, 15 minutes”, which implied a 4:30 round of golf. As a single, with no one in front of me, I played my round in 2 hours, 10 minutes. That is my fastest 18 holes (walking/carrying) ever.
If Urban Meyer wants to talk “uptempo”, he needs to give me a call.
The post A Walk, With Golf Clubs, Down Memory Lane appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...