For The Pure Joy Of It

2009 has been a difficult weather year for golf, but many of us are still swinging away regardless of the conditions. Yesterday's round at Anglebrook in Lincolndale, NY, proved that if you don't worry too much about your score and play the game for the pure enjoyment of it, you can have a great time regardless of the stuff falling out of the sky. Good companionship helps, which I had with Ralph Wimbish and Dan Berger. Anglebrook GM Matt Sullivan joined us for a few holes, but corporate duties called him back to his desk before things got interesting.

When we started the round, it was cold but dry. A little spitting rain started to fall as we made the turn, but hope springs eternal--especially on the golf course--so we pressed on. The snow didn't really start until the thirteenth hole and by then we were wet anyway, so what difference did it make? Besides, there were only a few more holes to play.

Sixteen at Anglebrook is a short but challenging par five. A fair poke off the tee (250 yards) puts you at the end of the fairway landing area looking downhill to the green 235 yards away. Anything much longer leaves you with a severe downhill lie in the rough, so bombers beware. But from the end of the fairway, you just gotta go for it. Aside from the bunkers, all you have to fear is fear itself, right?


Berger couldn't resist snapping a quick pic with his cell phone and yes, that is snow pelting me as I take my stance and take dead aim at the flagstick on the sixteenth hole. My shot landed just in front of the green and would have made it easily to the putting surface (or so I told everyone within earshot) if the ground had been dry. I attributed my miss of the birdie putt to the weather, too, since at that point in the round I had no feeling in my right hand.

Did I care? Not one whit.

As Wimbish said, "We're playing golf. What do we have to complain about?"

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo