Mulligans for everyone!

This makes me very happy. October 2nd!!!

Well, I finally did it. After a seven year hiatus, I have resumed my golfing career. Sunday afternoon, Little Joe and I “hit the links.” That’s slang for played golf… on a course, like with sand traps, trees, pitching wedges, golf carts, and stuff. Oh and mulligans. Lots of mulligans.

We “rode nine.” That’s slang for played nine holes with a golf cart. I don’t think it truly hit me that I was back on the golf course until around the third hole. That’s when I sailed consecutive tee shots into the same tree.

We’re not talking up in the branches, either. We’re talking into the trunk, maybe 18 inches across. And I hit it from fifty yards away. Twice. It’s good to know all that time and money spent at the driving range was finally paying off.

Little Joe was a blast, as well. It was his first time to ever be on a golf course. Well, legally anyway.

I would stop the cart near his ball then walk to mine, expecting that by the time I got ready to hit, he would’ve already taken his shot. Yet everytime I got to my ball and turned around, he was either still taking one of his umpteen practice swings, or looking at me like he was waiting for the go ahead or something. I felt like a flagman on a carrier ship trying to give him the signal to “Hit your shot.”

Not counting the four mulligans I took off the tee–because by definition, mulligans do not count–I shot a 51. Par was 36. Most importantly, I only lost three balls, which was really only two, because I could see one, I just didn’t feel like getting my shoes all muddy to retrieve it.

One question did arise Sunday. I guess it would be a question of golf course etiquette. My cell phone rang three times and I received two text messages during my nine holes. I don’t think I had a cell phone the last time I played. So what is proper golf etiquette? Are cell phones allowed on the course?

I kinda hope they are, because I found out yet another thing I like about golf Sunday. When someone calls and asks what I’m doing, I like the coolness factor of being able to say, “I’m on the golf course.”

“I think it turned ten o’clock but I don’t really know. Then I can’t remember caring for an hour or so…”