Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
A few weeks ago, friends of ours arrived from Ohio for five days of sightseeing and visiting. We had a terrific time showing them around and reminiscing.
One day, we went to the RoadRunner Grill for breakfast. Seeing all of the golfing activities around the area of the clubhouse, two of our female visitors commented that they didn’t understand the concept of hitting a golf ball. After all, what was the point?
Then I began to think about this notion of using a different type of club to strike, several times, a 1.68-inch-diameter hard ball to maneuver it into a round, 4-1/2-inch hole in the middle of a patch of land called a “green.” Not only that, there are things called hazards, like water and sand, that impede one’s effort to get that little ball into the hole with the fewest “hits” as possible.
For those who do not golf, this sounds ridiculous, does it not? But for those who do golf, here are some tidbits about this terrific sport:
On the website of the Coal Creek Golf Club (Louisville, Colo.) an article states the five reasons people love golfing:
You can play as many holes as you want
You can practice anywhere
You can compete with anyone, despite contrasting abilities
You love the challenge of the day, whatever it might be
It is fun and rewarding
To read the full article, go to www.coalcreekgolf.com/no-module-layout/92-five-reasons-we-love-golf
Further, according to the website of the Harbor Hills Golf Club (Lady Lake, Fla.), in 2015 nearly 2.2 million people started golfing. Additionally, an article on its website mentioned nine reasons why people should consider golfing:
It is good exercise
You are in the great outdoors
You can make new friends
You challenge yourself
It helps improve your character
It can be a whole-family experience
It can help to build business relationships
It is good for relaxation
It improves your health
Read the full article at www.harborhillsclub.com/blog/37-9-reasons-why-everyone-should-play-golf
For those who do golf (as well as for those who do not), here are some interesting factoids about golf history and other golf minutiae:
Golf was invented in Scotland in 1457.
The first round of golf for women was played in 1811 in Scotland.
The first golf balls were made with leather and had feathers inside of them.
There were plans to have a 19th hole at Augusta National to give losing golfers a chance to win their money back on a quick round of double-or-nothing. It was indefinitely tabled, because the hole would ruin the flow of the golf course.
The term “birdie” was coined in 1889, accidentally, by Ab Smith who (as the legend goes) hit a “bird of a shot.”
Only 80% of golfers will ever have a handicap under 18.
Tiger Woods was eight years old when he made his first hole-in-one.
The chance of making two holes-in-one in a single game is 1 in 67 million.
To read more golf facts, go to deercreekflorida.com/articles/20-surprising-facts-golf
“The more that I play, the luckier I get.” —Gary Player