If you ask any golfer what their major nemesis is, you'd get a lot of different answers. It would range from "Any Sand Trap", to "My fucking Lob Wedge" (who can hit those things?) – or "My Driver", to "Any club in my bag".
But, after a few recent events, I've come to realize that weather is every golfers true nemesis.
Those weather g-ds are evil. We've all had the situation where, when hitting an iron into a green, the wind gusts to 20 mph just when your are in mid swing, and your ball lands short in a green-side bunker (that other nemesis).
I don't know anyone who had a great round in bad weather. Oh wait, there was one guy. The Bishop in Caddyshack played one heck of a round in a teeming thunderstorm.
But, even that blessed round didn't end well

As for my game,
Two weeks ago, I felt I had finally gotten my game together. I played a round with my friend Vak at Bethpage (Yellow). The weather was perfect. Sunny, warm (but not hot), and a light breeze.
I shot an easy 84. 42 on both sides. Once again, the game seemed normal and the timing of shots natural.
Then, a mere 7 days later, I played at Eisenhower (Red) with a few Golfmatch/Golfstud pals. We almost cancelled the tee time the night before, as the weather was supposed to be real nasty.
But, the forecast eventually predicted that the rain would clear – so we were able to play.
However, due to the weather – we could not warm up prior to the tee time. The drizzle stopped just as we got to the first tee, although the temperature was chilly and it was breezy.
My first swing was a foul ball off First base. I took a mulligan, and pulled the drive left (over compensation).
The entire round was less that spectacular – shooting a 98 (I had the low round!).
I shot a 51 on the front nine, and 48 on the back. The weather cleared a bit more as we played, so I attributed my score to the change in the weather (as the back 9 on the Red course is harder than the front 9).
This past Saturday, was another day where the golf g-ds were frowning. The Saturday weather forecast was thunderstorms until 1pm. We cancelled our tee time.
But, when I woke up on Saturday, the weather prognosticators changed their tune, and now preducted that the rain would stop – so Vak and I went out to Eisenhower. I quickly booked a tee time on the Red course – but when they eventually opened (10am), the kept the Red closed – so we were able to play the White course at 10:04. Walkers only – no carts allowed.
I could see why they waited a few hours – there was standing water everywhere.


As most golfers know, hitting out of the rough is hard.
Hitting out of wet rough, is harder.
Hitting out of soggy, soaked, wet rough is brutal.
Although I played fairly well, the elements took it's toll.
Pushing my cart through the soggy grass was tiring. Hitting out of the rough (over and over and over), was exhausting. One of the guys they joined us with (Harvey) started to get back twinges. As a back pain sufferer, it was painful to watch. He finally stopped playing after 14 holes.
I wound up shooting a 46 on the front, and 43 on the back (89 overall for you non-mathematicians). I attribute the better back 9 to the weather, which cleared a bit and warmed up a lot.

Now let's talk about Monday. I had a scheduled outing at Baiting Hollow Country Club. However, my arch nemesis (Mother Nature) seemed to have other plans – storms were in the forecast. The club opted to have us tee off at 7am to beat the coming foul weather (This meant waking up at 4:30am!).
We indeed teed off at just after 7am. The outing was a scramble, so it was hard to judge how I played. Lets just say that it was eventful. Right after we walked off our last hole, the rains came.
As we ate our lunch, we watched the next outing tee off in the pouring rain. I wondered if the organizers of their outing had pissed off the golf g-ds more than the organizers of our outing.
None the less, we showed, we played, we conquered.
So, if any of you know the "Anti Rain Dance", please pass it on. This weather is killing my game.
Until next time
Keep it in the Short Hairs
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