Golf helps me escape coronavirus

Golf was on the schedule for and completed on Monday and Wednesday this week. A game Friday is also on tap. My early week results were not very good for some who's supposed to be a 6.8 handicap index. No need to bore you with the small details and the numbers except I've been playing the Red tees 6500-yard course (70.8 course rating/132 slope) while the others play at Wolfpack tees 6000 (68.6/123) and Gray tees 5500 (66.4/111) yards. I get two additional handicap strokes for the extra 500 yards Red vs. Wolfpack.

Congregation of players on first tee
at Lonnie Poole Golf Course

Back in the 1960s, my Dad bought a vacation beach house near the middle of Ocean Drive Beach, S.C. (North Myrtle Beach), and joined the Surf Golf and Beach Club just a few miles away. Hard to believe there were only three golf courses calling Myrtle Beach home at that time. In addition to the Surf, there were Pine Lakes International and the Dunes Club.

We (six children and our parents) took a two-week vacation there in late June and early July, in addition to going to O.D. many other weekends during the year. During those two weeks, Dad, my brothers Rob and Brooks, and I played golf every morning. We had a standing 8:36 a.m. tee time. Instead of riding carts, we walked and were fortunate to have two caddies, each carrying double.

My brothers and I were relatively long hitters back then so we enjoyed playing the championship tees. I recall Dad's regular looper (caddy for those who don't know the term) asking Dad one day, "Mr. Pomeranz, are you going to play back there with your boys or use the tees a little closer to the greens?" Dad's answer, "Well, I'll play back there with them because I can shoot 120 from those tees just was easily as I can from the front tees!"

Right now, I feel the same playing Lonnie Poole Golf Course's (LPGC) Red tees instead of the Wolfpack tees. I can shoot 85 from the Red tees just as easily as I can from the Wolfpack tees. So, getting the extra two shots is worth it as we play a simple game of total Net score. Besides, I like the longer stroll on these days of trying to avoid the coronavirus. I'm social distancing more than six feet from the others in the group, and I'm playing longer shots to the greens, changing up the challenge of the course. Playing the same tees day after day can be boring, probably as boring as this post of Jim's COVIDiary. (You decide; use the comment section below.)

LPGC has a detailed list of rules for play there. The course management is trying to keep everyone safe. Unfortunately there are players in each day's opening five or six groups who just can't seem to get a grasp of what to do. Some congregate on the first tee as if nothing is wrong. They approach you for conversation instead of talking from a safe distance. There's a regular who has such bad eye-sight that he has to pick up golf balls to identify and make sure he's hitting his ball, which sometimes doesn't stop him from hitting someone else's ball. I've asked him not to pick up golf balls that aren't his. One competitor told me COVID-19 is not as bad as we're told. He even suggested that he wish he could get it  and "get it over with." Amazing!

I checked the Pinehurst Country Club website for some of their rules and I'm impressed with two in particular. Please practice continuous putting to limit gathering on the green. So, once you start putting, complete putting and leave the green to allow the others to do the same. Do not putt and mark your ball and wait until others do the same, bringing everyone to the hole at the same time. And...We feel the best way to experience golf at Pinehurst is through your feet. If possible, please consider walking instead of using a cart. I walk Lonnie Poole with a push cart. It's about a five mile walk, up and down hills. Good exercise.

At age 68 later this month, I can still hit the ball relatively far, drives of 225 to 270 depending on the wind and 54-degree wedges of 100 yards. One of these days, I'm moving up to the Green tees, a 4700-yard layout with a 63.1 course rating and a 99 slope and where I'll get no handicap strokes, relying on my gross score to make it into the money.I can shoot 85 from there as easily as I can from the other sets of tees. I think my issue is putting.