gorty

During the winter here, it gets dark at around 4:15. That is pretty early and it makes for some pretty depressing days if you want to play golf. Forget about the fact that it is probably freezing and awful and you can’t play golf anyway. NOW I know why they invented Florida and Arizona, also Las Vegas, North and South Carolina, and ……. you see what I mean.

This is a beautiful Vermont Mountain Sunset, but I prefer them at 8:30 to 9:00 PM. And, that is precisely what is happening now. I am out of my igloo, emerging from my long winter’s nap, getting sun, whatever……the daylight hours are long and getting longer and I just love it. In fact I am delivering my dear daughter to her 4:30 dance class and then I am going to the Brattleboro Country Club to Play as many holes as I can. I probably won’t make it to 18, but I just very well may. Not too hot either.

I have been golfing this Spring, and it has been alternately, sunny and warm and wet and cold. That doesn’t bother me so much as trying to reclaim a game that was shaping up nicely when I put the clubs away for the winter. The very thought (and it briefly flashed through my befuddled mind) that golf is like riding a bike is silly. What you believe you can do one day suddenly and without explanation disappears. The only thing you can hope is that it is replaced (quite by surprise) by the emergence of some other part of your game. This being the beginning of my fifth year playing golf, I am calmer and those things that are rusty or off by a little do seem to straighten themselves out faster than in the past.

That being said, when I put the clubs away, my shots had a draw that sometimes turned into a hook. So far this year I have hit the ball fairly straight, the problem is, since I am still compensating for the ball heading left, the ball goes to the right of where I want it to go (the woods writ large). this happens until I stop compensating for the draw or left turn. Then it draws or hooks and I’m left or way left of where I want to be.

I guess I am learning something from my father, a man who’s handy with the sticks, plays everyday and is 80 years old. Golf is a game you never own. Nobody does, not even Tiger. I wouldn’t mind leasing with an option to buy.

I started playing golf four years ago at age 50. I had just sold the Four Columns Inn in Newfane Vermont, and after 9 years of on 24/7, I had some time on my hands. Never a good one with idle hands, I decided to look into golf after my accountant had sent me a special offer to join The Brattleboro Country Club. (It was such a good deal too! All the old members resented the new one’s because it was so good.)

I quickly learned that the game is not as easy as it looked, and, not knowing ANYTHING about the game, I thought it looked easy. I learned fast that golf is anything but. A ball that is stationary? Such a thing cannot be hard to hit. After several attempts to make this easy thing happen (advancing the ball), it became clear to me that this was a mind game as much as a physical act.

Thus, I come to the title of this piece. Buddha Balls. I received two sleeves of Buddha Balls the Christmas after starting my golf career. Actually they are balls with sayings on them. They refer to the zen of golf and each sleeve has a label with a picture pf the the Buddha and the inscription BREATH. PRAY. SWING. SMILE. Irregular Cranial Activity puts a custom zen saying on each ball:

Here are my favorites in the order of favoriteness: *(6-1. 1 being most favorite)

6. If a ball falls in the woods, count it.
5. The path is narrow. The tree is wide.
4. The aim is true. The ball is fickle.
3. Be mindless and hit. Others are waiting.
2. The self says: I am. The ball says: You are nothing.
1. He who knows himself should not be here.

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