The Reinvention of Golf

It matters how you keep score

The author and Gil Peters on the 16th green

To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:

Fore?

My Sanibel friend Gil Peters is the one who reintroduced me to golf.

I played in my 20s and again in my 40s and took a few lessons along the way. I never broke a hundred for 18 holes, but I enjoyed being out there on golf courses in Wayland, Woonsocket, and Casper with friends.

I thought I had given up the game for good three decades later when we bought our house on a golf course here in Sanibel.

We have a great view of the second tee. It looked as if the golfers, most of them my age or older, were having fun. What I remembered of my own golfing was mainly frustration.

But Gil, an irrepressible former news hound like myself, urged me to give golf another try. I bought a modest set of clubs two years ago and took some more lessons. I’ve played with Gil in a couple of best-ball scramble tournaments benefitting charity more than my own self-esteem.

This winter I came up with an idea for improving the fun of golf.

“Would you mind if we don’t keep score?” I asked Gil a couple of months ago. Not at all, he said. So we didn’t.

It was a lot more fun.

I work on tips that the golf pro, Chris, has taught me. It was like practicing at the driving range, only you got to drive the cool, electric carts and commune with iguana, pelicans, wood storks, and osprey on the course.

Yesterday Gil and I played the back nine, because there was a charity scramble taking place on the first nine holes. It was a cloudless day with a pleasant breeze and no one following us on the course.

Gil’s feet hurt, so he played barefoot.

Even though we didn’t keep score, I got down on myself for how poorly I played on the last three holes. My feet hurt, and I hobbled to my ball with awkward steps. I needed a new way to have fun at the game.

That’s when an idea occurred: What if I did keep score, but only by counting the number of terrific shots I have in a round of golf?

The reason I keep playing is that I actually do know how to hit a decent drive, fairway shot, chip shot to the green, or putt. I just don’t hit enough of them to add up to a score worth logging on the golf cart’s digital scorecard.

But oh, do those sweet shots bring me joy. The ball soars up over the fairway, not even blinking at the ubiquitous water hazards. Or a long putt rolls across the green and bends toward the hole at the last minute for a satisfying plop.

So the next time I play, with Gil or maybe with my son-in-law Josh who will be visiting in a couple of weeks with my daughter Sarah, I’m going to count and write down only my awesome shots. I have a red pocket notebook I’ll bring for the use.

I’ll set par at 5 for nine holes. That’s how many great shots I might get.

“How’d you do?” Darlene will ask afterward.

“Amazing. I got a ten,” I’ll say.

I will describe the details of each great shot until her eyes glaze over. That’s when I’ll show her the photo I took of the iguana on the 15th tee.