Golf Fore the Good

There is something magical about one’s first love. It may not be everlasting; it may not be the truest; it may not be everything you find you need or want; but it is always and forever special.

The first championship golf course at which I obtained a membership, and the years I spent playing there, stand out in my memory as an exceptional time and place in my life. Just as St. Andrews is looked upon as the home of golf itself, my golfing life was undeniably begun at a fair little municipal course I will never forget.

This romance began very casually, as golf, or so I thought then, was nothing to be taken seriously. I surely didn’t see it coming – a hard and fast relationship with a game that would wholly steal my heart.

I’d spent the year prior dabbling at par three layouts; nothing that would take your breath away, but a couple of decent tracks where I could test my game and learn the ins and outs, and ups and downs, of golf.

As a golfer, I was but a freshman yearning for the trappings of the senior prom. I couldn’t wait for my debut on the championship layout. When the day finally came, I teed it up on the opening hole, a not-so-long but narrow, dog leg par five. By the time I’d hacked my way barely half way to the green, with no flag stick yet in sight, I wondered aloud at the cruelty of my new found relationship. My familiar par threes had been so short and sweet. What sort of beast had I come up against, to what merciless fiend had I laid open my heart?

The golf course is not the most difficult, but it provides a varied layout with many unique golf holes. To this day, more than a decade after I have left the course behind to join another, I can picture every tee box, every fairway in my mind. Though my visits are now infrequent, time has done nothing to dull the memories and my affection for the course.

How true that absence makes the heart grow fonder! Whenever I return to play those velvet links and undulating greens, I step to the first tee with a song in my heart and great expectations. Like that first love, I’ve come to idealize my rounds there, remembering all that was good while letting go of the hurt and the struggles.

I return on occasion to play my old home course, and stand on the first tee with great expectations. Ah, lest I get lost in the dreams of the past, it is never long before I am reminded that golf is a game to be played in the present. The course is not the longest, nor the hardest, but it is a golf course none the less… and like all good relationships, it requires a good deal of attention and consideration; and like any good golf course, it’s worth the work.