Golf
"Golf is a game in which you yell Fore, shoot six and write down five." Paul Harvey
"If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball." Jack Lemmon
"Give me golf clubs, fresh air and a beautiful partner, and you can keep my golf clubs and the fresh air." Jack Benny
My husband Ivan said that golf was a strange game that made no sense. "Why would someone want to hit a ball as far as they could, only to have to find it?" He also said that he would never play a game with small balls. When he started playing at age 51, I wondered about those very words.
My father, who goes by the name of Flash, started playing golf at age 60. At 86, he has a handicap of 20-21 and an average game of 95. Pretty impressive for an old-timer.
Upon my father's last visit to Nassau, he
and Ivan played at South
Ocean Golf Course. Flash says "it's 
a tough course with some
hills. The putting green is tough and you have to be a long ball
hitter. Pin placement is tough, but the sand traps aren't difficult to get
out of". He also mentioned that the fairway is as hard as a rock,
therefore you use more irons than woods. A friend of ours referred to
South Ocean as the limestone course.
Flash also had the opportunity to play at the Ocean Club/Atlantis Golf Course on Paradise Island. When he got home from playing that course, he sat down heavily in a chair and said he didn't know where he got the stamina to play all 18 holes. He was ready to quit after the first hole when he learned that golf carts aren't allowed on the fairways, hence a lot of walking is required. In comparing both courses, he said "Atlantis is a longer course than South Ocean; there are more hills and lots of water hazards". His overall comment was "the whole damn course is tougher". I wondered if he indeed was influenced by the amount of walking required at Atlantis, or by the course itself.
As for myself, I always thought that golf was a game of contortion, all that twisting and swinging. It can't be healthy, but then I look at Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez, and all the John and Jane Doe's out there. I guess there must be something about it after all.
