Greetings From The Booth!

Before I get to this week’s main topic…a note to the Washington Nationals: SCORE A RUN, PLEASE! The 5-13 Nats were shut out by the Baltimore Orioles in back-to-back games this week. In one of the games, Oriole starter Dean Kremer entered the game with an ERA near 10! Washington hard-luck pitcher Josiah Gray, who deserved a better fate in that 1-0 loss, needs to “lawyer up” and sue for non-support. He is now 0-4, with a respectable ERA of 3.74, but has received little help this year from an offense that is near the bottom of most NL categories.

This past Sunday, I finally got the golf clubs out of cold storage and played my first round of the year. It was a perfect morning as we stepped up to the first tee of the Boulder Course of Rock Harbor Golf Club. The 7:40 tee time meant that my twosome would get out ahead of the pack and be able to play at a nice pace. I now play the orange tees (no longer called the “senior tees”) and at 63, this has made the game more enjoyable for me. I decided to try something different and hit a nice 3-wood from the tee box instead of the usual driver, and nailed it right down the center to within 100 yards. A well-struck pitching wedge rolled just off the green, and my chip for birdie came up just 2 inches short. The tap-in par was a great way to start the golf season. The rest of the way was filled with some good shots, and some not-so-good ones, and a solid 41 on the back nine allowed me to break 90 by a couple of shots, which is in my wheelhouse of 85-92.

I’ve made some resolutions this year about golf, and I hope I can keep them until at least June. This is what I’m going to tell myself this year:

You’re not a pro. You don’t practice on the range and putting green for 10 hours a day, so lower the bar of expectation. Enjoy the round, the green grass and blue skies, the songbirds, the companionship, and don’t focus so much on score. Everyone, and I mean, everyone (even the touring pros) hit bad shots. Have a beverage or two, laugh at the duffs, dribbles, and slices, and revel in the occasional pars and the elusive birdies. No one will remember what your score was last week, but they will remember the good time they had with you on the golf course and at the 19th hole.

So there you are. My approach to golf this season. The slow play, three-putt greens, and snowmen (8’s on the card) will still upset me a bit, but not as much. Remember the old saying, “a bad day on the golf course is better than a good day at work.” There are worse places to be.

And one other thing: if you have a tee time on your favorite course this Earth Day weekend, remember to take care of the planet and replace your divots…

Until the next visit from The Booth…FORE!

RW