Government Shutdown Be Damned – Tee It Up!

Gainey Ranch G.C. Clubhouse from #9 Arroyo

If the government can shut down, so can I. Yup, I’ve taken a couple weeks off after covering the Inferno Cup all summer. What’s the government shutdown got to do with golf you ask? In some respects, our government and our golf games are exactly opposite. In fact, they couldn’t be more diametrically opposed.

In golf, we put a lot of time and money into a sport. We enter upon the field of battle and treat a two foot putt for a two dollar Nassau as if it’s the end of the world if we miss it. The reality is… the significance of our playing golf is almost zero. In the grand scheme of things, our golf match today or any day doesn’t mean a damn thing. We love to pretend it is of critical importance, but it’s below “trivial” on life’s list of essentials. It’s for our pleasure – nothing more.

Congress, on the other hand, takes an issue that is of the utmost importance and trivializes it. It toys with the world economy, the lives and well-being of not only every American, but everyone on the planet, as if it were little more than a playground game. These guys really need to get it together before the gettin’ is gone.

In the meantime, I’ve missed birdie putts of two feet or less on #6 Dunes in three consecutive rounds. Now that is some serious stuff.

To summarize the last two weeks, here are your match winners Scott Hull (2), Garry Warner (2), Howard Jones (2), Mike Nichols, Don Fruchtman, Gary Reibman, Bruce Partridge, Pat Collins, Sam McConkey, Jim Stamatis, Jim Woods and Sandy Wiener. For those of you interested in seeing the nitty-gritty of the various matches, here are the scores for Oct. 4^th, Oct. 7^th, Oct. 9^th, Oct. 11^th and Oct. 14^th.

Scores have soared in some matches as a result of playing one nine that has just opened after over-seeding and a second nine that has been scalped in preparation for over-seeding. It’s been a show worthy of America’s Funniest Videos to watch someone finally get used to extremely slow greens, make the turn and have to lag a putt downhill on greens that role like a sheet of marble. Many have had second putts twice as long as the first putt. Golf may be of little consequence, but it teaches character and patience at the same time.

Oh well – Back to work. Maybe they’ll do the same thing in Washington before it affects my golf game. That’s a serious issue.