From January to March, the winter of discontent, waiting, waiting.

Well, it snowed and snowed, about 140 inches (plus) and it was cold, colder than I remember winter to be as the last few snowy seasons were, indeed, warmish. As there is NO alternative to hit golf shots other than one or the other of two local “dome” arenas, an hour on Thursday’s was spent trying to keep golf muscles in shape, remembering what it felt like weeks than months, as winter proceeded. I’d been working on drawing the ball (from right to left) and combining that shot with my more normal fade, and was looking forward to continuing my improvement when we ran out of season and the snow began falling. December was taken with holidays but in January the task began again, and I can’t remember exactly when it started, but shortly into the “dome” season I began hitting shank after shank and it went on for weeks. There’d be whole, large buckets of balls, about 150 shots per bucket, where I’d hit the first few OK, then proceed to hit ALL the remaining, shanks. Now, if you’re a golfer you know about shanks, the fact that they come upon you all at once and you can’t (at least I can’t) seem to figure out why and my only solution is to stick it out. All I can say is after weeks, and I mean week, I finally got to going through the ball and hitting it again and the fucking shanks went back to where they came from. In late February and March my shots got back to normal, and as I progressed from my nine to my three iron, first hitting a draw and then a fade, I just got more and more anxious for the season to begin. The weather finally cooperated and by mid-March the snow began to fade. Last year Carl and I’d played 90 holes by the end of March, and this year I did get 36 holes in, two rounds at Shadow Lake, where I hit the ball very well and was ready for 2003. The plan this year is to get from a nine to four, or five, by reducing my number of double bogies (significantly) and focusing on greens in regulation (driving and irons) and making birdies (putting). It’s a big order, but hey, why not.

Here’s the first tee on opening day, March 28^th, 2002.