Thursday, July 28, 2005

Priceless (to me anyway)

I was playing a round of golf with the kid the other day, and before we even started I already owed her six bucks from a previous round. At a dollar a hole, that meant that, in match play, the contest would have been over after hole 13. But this second round didn’t go quite according to plan – for her anyway.

After a few holes she was up by 2, and it pretty much stayed that way till late in the round. She had been coasting on her lead. It was easy to beat Dad these days. He’ll screw up eventually; he always does. And in the Florida heat it’s easy to get lazy, and a couple of bogeys finally crept onto her scorecard. Suddenly we were even and she was forced to realize that Dad had never really gone away. Somehow he kept making pars. After 16 I was one up. At 17 she was pin high but with a tough chip out of thick rough and not much green to work with. I was much further from the hole with an awkward, side-slope stance in the front bunker. I swung and put the ball a foot from the hole.

Miss Cool’s exasperation finally erupted: "What the hell are you doing?!" she barked.

I nearly fell down laughing. She hit a mediocre chip and bogeyed. 2 up.

"Don’t ever, ever count the old man out," I’d reminded her several times during the round, to which she responded, "Yeah, yeah."

On 18 my lack of practice finally produced the inevitable double-bogey to her par, so she lost by only one, and now I owe her a mere five bucks.

Update: The foregoing was written before today’s round. I now owe her 7 bucks.

Update: Now I owe her 12 bucks.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice work, Dad. No doubt she still knows from whence came her talent. My kids already outperform me at too many things ...

Anonymous said...

I think she knows. I have, over the years, reminded her that everything she has is a gift that really comes from a higher source. Maybe in her prayers she remembers that now and then.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm. I think I'd stop the bet before you owe her a wedding or something! :-)

Blessings!

Anonymous said...

I'm going to practice!

Wedding's off, btw.