Therapy with Golf

Dan’s way of dealing with things is a good round of golf.  Unfortunately, we have chosen hobbies that cost more than we should be spending, but Dan loves to golf and needed a little therapy time.  So off we went.

On Tuesday we headed out to Lakeside Links in Ludington, home of one of my grandfather’s hole-in-ones.  If only Dan had such skill on the day we went.   His comment was that his chipping stunk like a wet goose fart on a muggy day (from the must see movie New In Town).  The chipping caused a few moments of frustration, but on the bright side at least he was consistently bad when he retried his shot.  (No worries, we weren’t holding anyone up…we were actually waiting for a few groups ahead of us so Dan decided to make the most of his time on the course.) 

Many things added to the day’s adventure.  At one point, Dan jumped out of the cart while it was still moving.  He quickly learned to never again place his foot in the way of the cart.  A little ride over didn’t slow him down.  Next we were trying to climb the steepest terrain on the course with the cart.  When the cart stopped moving at the 80-degree incline, I thought it would be best for me to jump out and push.  Dan’s logic behind it was that it was a beautiful outlook over the lake we were next to.  Then came the moment of greatness…the hole that I believe my grandfather got a hole-in-one on.  Dan being the pressure player he is, gets up and smacks the ball.  FORE!!!  We pull up to find his ball placed 5 feet from the golfer waiting to tee off the next hole.  The comments of the golfer were, “all I heard was a thud”.  Fortunately, no one was hurt…just maybe Dan’s pride.

I decided my body wasn’t really ready for a round of 18, so I decided to just ride along.  Little did I know my body would never be ready for the adventures of riding with Dan on the golf cart.  The carts had to have been super charged.  They went about mach 10 and Dan was loving every second of the speed.  I on the other hand was not.  On the 1^st nine, I thought my white clenched knuckles would have been clue enough to Dan to slow down.  As my body flopped around like a wet noodle, I was reminded of Dan’s frequent reminders to me that I need to be blunt with him in order for him to understand what I need.  So, kindly I asked if he could slow down a touch.  Not because the speed, but because of the speed combined with the bumpy terrain.  I literally think the cart was airborne at times.  My core muscles being too weak to hold me in the cart, I flopped from side to side as I braced myself with all the limbs I had.  Sweetly he would apologize and slow down, until it came to his next shot.  Then, off again, zooming like a bat-out-of-hell.  I think at one time he commented on how much he loved the speed of the carts.  As I would cling to the cart for my own safety, he continued his Nascar driving on the greens.  Kindly again, I would ask him to slow down.  He would sincerely apologize, hit a bad ball, and then off to the races we would go again.  Needless to say, I was glad to sit back in the Lazy-Boy and rest my back after that adventure.

The next morning we headed to Meijer to get a few things.  Looking at the magazines, Dan decided he needed to read up on how to improve his chipping game.  On the cover was, “10 ways to improve your chip shot”.  Perfect!  Rule #1 was “Good chippers are self taught”.  Instantly this poses a little bit of a problem.  Well, I guess we will leave it to Dan to work on this one.  Many more rounds of golf will be needed, but like I said its Dan’s therapy.  If only we could figure out a way for MESSA to cover some of the therapy costs.