Golf is hard

Golf is hard.  No matter how much you enjoy it or how good you play, it is a difficult and challenging game.  In many sports, simply being athletic can make you adequate.  You can't muscle yourself to greatness in golf.  Golf takes lots of practice, proper technique, patience, and a clear mind.  Even then it can be challenging.  Part of the challenge is the average person gets frustrated when they don't play perfectly.

Think about how challenging the game is just at a basic level.  You have a four-foot long stick with a graphite head at the end.  You then try to hit a ball that is one inch in diameter into a hole somewhere between 400 and 1500 feet away.

When you watch golf on TV it looks easy...with guys pumping drives 300 yards down the middle of the fairway and hitting approach shots within feet of pins.  However, it isn't always easy for the people that do it for a living.  Case in point...David Duval 's experience yesterday.  He hit the wrong ball en route to a score of 14 which was the highest hole score in 69 years at the British Open.  He had a 49 on the front and a 42 on the back for a 91.  While he is not the golfer that he once was, he still is a PGA professional and former major winner and world #1.

So if golf is so hard, why do we bother playing?  Because sometimes it seems really easy and then it is really fun.  I witnessed some of that easy golf on Wednesday evening.  Scott Martin had a 36 with nine pars, hitting drives down the middle and never really being in any trouble.

Scott Maynes also made putting look easy, draining an 81-foot putt on #5 for birdie.  He started 5 feet on the front of the green and made a perfect roll to the hole at the far back of the green.

There were lots of interesting pin placements.  The location inside of 10 feet of the left middle side of #8 was particularly diabolical.  Rumour has it that the guy putting the holes in on Wednesday morning was cranky.

Back to Maynes' 81-foot putt.  The distance was confirmed by Scott Martin who measured it with his GPS.  The next morning during his daily 18, Scott checked to see if a similar putt from just on the green could be longer on other holes.  Here are some of his findings.  The second hole from side to side could stretch to 90 feet.  It would be around 90 feet from the front of #3 to a hole at the back.  Other potentially long putts would include a 70 footer on #3, 74 feet on #8, and up to 73 feet on #9.

There were only 26 golfers on Wednesday.  The lower turnout was attributed to Fair Day.  Skins went on five holes.  Winners included Stephen David / Wes Arfinson ($55.25 on #2), Scott Maynes / Norm Verboom ($20.00 on #5), Kory Stebeleski / Dick Edgeworth ($55.25 on #6), Terry Brandon / Chris Malchuk ($71.75 on #7), and Kendal Koroscil / Kevin Bartram ($20.00 on #9).

The previously mentioned Kendal Korsocil was closest on both par 3's.  He also a 2 to share the $49.00 deuce pot with Scott Maynes.

Next week we have Men's Night on Wednesday, the Credit Union tournament on Thursday, and the Horse Race on Saturday.  There is still room in both tournaments.  Additionally, I was talking to Joe Shwaluk this morning and he is planning a Night Golf event for Friday, August 16.