I like to play golf, although there seems to some disagreement as to what I do on the golf course is really “playing golf.” Nonetheless, I enjoy it and of course what makes it the most enjoyable, is that the group I play with are all really nice guys.
Over the past couple of years, getting a group together for golf has become more difficult — the golf course that was “our kind of course” closed, Covid made everything more difficult and life just generally got in the way of golf. Everyone in our golf group is “retired,” so you’d think we should be able to play anytime we wanted…. but — that’s just not the case.
When we do get together for golf, after the round, we all sit down and have a couple of beers and talk about whatever is on anyone’s mind — these 19th-hole sessions have provided us all a lot of entertainment, as well as solved some of the world’s most challenging issues.
Of course we only play golf when the weather is nice, so a few years ago, we started a “Winter Golf” league. Winter golf is just like summer golf except, the weather is too cold to play golf, so we don’t.
We just skip the golf and go right to the 19th-hole session. We rotate it round to everyone’s house and it’s just like golf — without the golf.
But even winter golf has taken a hit lately — last year we didn’t hold it because of the coronavirus and all the precautions associated with it, like social distancing, etc. And this year, it was cut back from our regular schedule of the past.
But this week we had the “Farewell to Winter Golf” gathering at our house in preparation for summer golf getting underway. This year winter golf took on a different format — wives were included. In the past it was just us grumpy old golfers doing what we always did. The addition of the wives seems to have cleaned up our act a bit and the subjects took on a different flavor, with less complaining and certainly less of a “bar” atmosphere.
I’m not sure our gathering was technically winter golf as it has been in the past, but it was very enjoyable and the conversation was different and refreshing. Welcoming the ladies certainly added a bit of class — and beauty….
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