Priorities shift like the tide, and this summer it seems high time to rediscover my golf game.
This is the real sport of my life, and the one where I can actually compete on a reasonable level. If I could run like I golf, maybe I’d even be a 2:30 marathoner.
Or rather, I should say, if I could run like I used to golf. My game has suffered terrible abuse these past few years.
The running all started really as a replacement for time on the links, dating back to a period in my life when I just couldn’t get out for the four hours required to play 18 holes, or the time to drive to competitions around the area. How could I keep fit and active ? I tried lunchtime squash, but whereas in my twenties I’d played squash to keep fit, suddenly in my mid-thirties I just wasn’t fit enough to play squash. Half way through the fourth game I began to see double, and I wasn’t really sure if it was near-collapse or sweat in my eyes which caused the problem. Then I tried lunchtime swimming, but the drive to the pool and lobotomic endless lengths soon put me off. Finally I thought that running could prove the answer, since a 30 minute run could provide all the exercise I need, neatly fitted into a lunch-hour.
It’s interesting how things can get out of hand. I take up 30 minute runs as replacement for four hour golf games, and, seven years later, what am I doing ? Four hour runs. And driving half way across the country to run them. Suddenly golf doesn’t seem such a time-consuming pastime, after all.
Related articles:
99. One over Strath
66. A dream from Detroit – 2004 Ryder Cup
125. The green and the gold – 2006 Ryder Cup
132. Newburgh – an Aberdeenshire morning
roads of stone 