Eleventh Golf Game in 2005

Andy Southmayd and I played 18 holes today at The Rookery, a few miles north of Lewes. As State employees, we get Columbus Day off. Our wives and kids, as teachers and students, do not. That is not particularly fair, but it does mean that we can play golf without sacrificing a day-off with our families.

I played badly, with the usual few good shots and a hole or two on which I scored par or only one-over par. Those holes are how the golf-gods hook you and make sure you'll come back for more.

It was a grey day, threatening rain but never really carrying out that threat. In fact there was some doubt, looking at the forecast, whether we'd be able to get out and play. It never did actually rain on us, but the course was soaking wet; by the end of the day, so were we.

A very wet course has some consequences. You don't get much of a fairway roll, just a short rooster-tail effect. In very wet spots, getting the club-head under the ball -- which should leave a large divot and a lofted shot -- results instead in a deadened, dredged muff as the mud sucks the power from the club. And, it can be harder to read the speed of the greens.

These are all excuses, of course. I'm a terrible golfer. But I do enjoy trying.