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Show bu s wun me crew cuis aiiu uuin- ouyo nu j t ft k J -t I Game of lifetime takes lifetime to play the editor's Golf. It's called the game of a lifetime. That's how long ago it seems I gave it up. So when John called and suggested we play nine holes some afternoon, I wasn't sure if I could still hit that little white ball, let alone drive it down a fairway. But it seemed like a good idea at the time. It had been so long I ' wouldn't have to worry about playing well, and could enjoy just playing. So we scheduled a day and hoped the weather would cooperate. 1 stopped visiting the golf course years ago after I decided it took too long to play a game and it created too much internal pressure for me to enjoy myself. I was introduced to the game at an early age - when my father would take me to Soda Springs (30 miles from home, but the nearest golf course at the time) and let me follow him around while he played. I was about 8 or 9 when Dad would give me a five iron, a golf ball and let me work my way around the course. I was about 12 when I was warming war-ming up with a driver and hit my big brother in the mouth when he walked behind me during my back swing. It took his front tooth out, root and all. By the time I was 14, my father and several, other men in our small community had garnered enough support in town to build a nine-hole municipal golf course - . and the family took up the sport in earnest. My father helped me put together I was a lousy putter, had a hard time with approach shots, and sported a slice that was especially attracted to water hazards and the deep rough. When I left home for college, I took my clubs with me -- but 1 found I had little time to play, and as a struggling student I couldn't afford the green fees. My studies took up most of my time anyway, and I gradually left the sport behind. With marriage, and then children, the practicality of getting away for two hours became even more remote, and so for years the old clubs remained tucked away in a basement corner, forgotten except for those brief moments when we considered selling them for whatever we could get for them. They were in such bad shape, it never seemed worth the trouble, so there they stayed -- just one more piece of baggage to drag around everytime we moved. But time changes things, and by the time John called, I was ready to bring the clubs back into daylight and swing them around a little. With the prospects of a pleasant Thursday afternoon game, we scheduled a tee-off time at the Tri-Cities Tri-Cities course and hoped the weather would hold. It was great -- just like the old times on the Montpelier Golf Course. Everything was just as I remembered it. I still couldn't putt, my approach shots were still too short, and the familiar sfo; carried my drives off to the iW My game had its ups and do-sank do-sank a beautiful putt i0 ' number 6 (the ensuing outcryj and amazement probably rui drives of several other golfcnp course), and then drove i water on number 7 - twice. But I avoided all of theanit;.-tendencies theanit;.-tendencies that made me given-game given-game in the first place. I didn'i', my temper. I didn't even thrw, clubs. (The gentle tossing if-putter if-putter so it would land near mi: after I four putted the gret-number gret-number 4 does not count, of And overall the experience . invigorating, relaxing, lite and thoroughly enjoyable. Tri-City's front nine t: challenging 'and well cared : except .for that patch of it. ground that literally swallow;-drive swallow;-drive just feet in front of the g:-on g:-on number 5. The other golfers were, as ah; courteous. And the more I reflect o Thursday afternoon, the more: convinced that maybe I'm gre-into gre-into the game that I though! 1 : outgrown. The problem is that spare and-a-half hours all at one tin- , still hard to come by - espei- I with six kids at home all trying' : my attention. On .second thought, that's i! more reason to head for the Fore! By MAUC HADDOCK a set of clubs, paid half of my annual fee so I could play any time, any day, and lined up some lessons so I could unlearn all of those bad habits I had picked up walking around the Soda Springs course swinging a five iron. I played a lot - but never enough to learn how to play well. I would par an occasional hole, but usually ended up one or two over par. |