My favorite time of the year - Part II - Nick

In my last entry I had went ahead and made some predictions about the NCAA Tournament. After an almost nauseating weekend of watching basketball (by the way I did take Friday off), it looks like the four teams I predicted to still be alive at this point include: North Carolina, Villanova, Oklahoma and UConn.

I have enjoyed watching most of the games so far but it is a bit disappointing to not have a Cinderella in it, I mean you could consider Arizona a Cinderella team, but I think they will get knocked out by Louisville this week. As for the Badgers, they made a great run at, but it seems they found their match against Xavier. They played a game we all became used to this year, as they could not hit a shot down the stretch. Oh well maybe next year; I am excited to actually have a big man in the post with Ian Markoff.

Another reason this is my favorite time of year is that I get to golf, well at least when I have time during the summer. The past couple summers the Corporate Sales guys have been able to set up deals with Bridges and The Oaks golf courses. This is a nice opportunity to go out after work on a non-game day, drink a few beers and be absolutely frustrated as hell, yet still have a great time.

I could never figure out why people continually go out and golf yet never really get better because they can not dedicate the time on the range and the course. Every once in a while you get in a zone and surprise yourself. I managed to shoot +1 on the front nine at the Bridges, sinking 3 birdie putts of over 30 ft., yet playing the back nine first I shot +10. How does someone manage to turn around their game in that short amount of time? It’s perplexing and I think it’s the challenge of trying to get better even though deep down you know you won’t get better.

I have actually only been golfing for 13 years. I was turned on to the game by my cousin. I rented a set of clubs and went out with him one summer day and was hooked from there. I proceeded to start to look for clubs. For all you avid golfers you know how expensive clubs can be. I skimmed the classifieds trying to find a decent set of used clubs. I finally came a across a set of clubs that included a cart, balls and tees for $50! I knew that they weren’t going to be anything fancy, but the “rents” and I decided to go look at them. It turned out to be an elderly couple selling them because they were getting too old to golf anymore. I thought this was perfect, all except for one thing... the set was actually a woman’s set! I was pretty short and had always heard that people who were shorter would actually fit better with a woman’s set. Well I did end up purchasing the set.

Going into my freshman year of high school I decided I wanted to go out for the golf team. I went to a pretty small school (Kewaskum, WI) and everyone made the team. I was just happy I got to golf for free and hang out with friends. Well in high school image is everything. I still had the women’s set of clubs and they distinctly said “Lady King” on the heads of all the clubs. I decided I would put black electrical tape on all the heads where it said “Lady King”. This worked for awhile until one day one of my friends said “What is the black tape for”? Well he decided to pull it off and saw the words “Lady King”. Well there went my image! My next birthday my parents bought me a brand new set of “Men’s” clubs. It was kind of embarrassing, but I managed to play golf all four years of high school.

During high school I was so infatuated with golf that I found jobs where I immersed myself into the sport. The summers of my freshman and sophomore years I actually worked at a golf course in the restaurant kitchen washing dishes. This was probably one of the worst jobs I had, but it had the perk of free golf. I can’t tell how many days I went out in the morning golfed 18 holes and came back in the afternoon and golfed another 18 holes…..Man those were the days!

The summer of my junior year I actually caddied at a swanky country club in West Bend, WI. Again I found any way to surround myself with golf. Most days at the club all the caddies ended up playing cards waiting to be called to go out. I learned a lot of new card games that summer! Since it was my first year I was on the bottom of the totem pole and only went out every 3 days or so. Overall it was a pretty decent summer. I made some great friends and decided that carrying someone else’s club was not for me.

So here we are years later I have moved past the women’s clubs and found a great set of Ping irons. I still can’t figure out why I love golf so much, I am probably one of the guys you would hate to play with because I get so upset with myself after bad shot, but I always find myself at the course on a day off trying to tinker with my swing or get over a case of the yips.

Only 68 Days until Opening Day!