Golf Dreams

[Bill_McBride]

After a couple of glasses of a nice bordeaux, and still in a good mood from watching Greg Norman and listening to Tom Watson at Birkdale today -- shut up, Mike Tirico! -- I am in a tell all mood and invite others to share their golf dreams.

Not your golf visions or goals - your actual dreams that you dream at night......

I have what psychiatrists would have a field day with I'm sure.

My recurring dream is this:

I'm playing a top level course, usually one I've been invited to play, it's never clear which one.

My appointed tee time arrives and I am ready to head onto the tee.

My clubs are nowhere to be found.  Occasionally I haven't put my  golf shoes on yet either.

So  I race around and look for my clubs, or get my shoes on, maybe both.

By the time I get to the first tee, my group is long gone.   I never find them, I never get to play.

I wake up in a cold sweat.

This dream happens in recurring cycles, sometimes absent for months, sometimes every night for a while.

Paging Dr. Katz.....

What are YOUR golf dreams?

[J_ Crisham]

Bill, Is this the dream you had the night before you shot 77 at MPCC  during KP against myself and Stamm playing off a 12 HCP? I wish I dreamed more often if that were the case! Jack

[Bill_McBride]

Bill, Is this the dream you had the night before you shot 77 at MPCC  during KP against myself and Stamm playing off a 12 HCP? I wish I dreamed more often if that were the case! Jack

Actually it was a 79 after the triple at 17.

The dream, like the road, goes on forever.

[David Stamm]

Bill, Is this the dream you had the night before you shot 77 at MPCC  during KP against myself and Stamm playing off a 12 HCP? I wish I dreamed more often if that were the case! Jack

Actually it was a 79 after the triple at 17.

The dream, like the road, goes on forever.

79 or 77, what's the diff. He wiped the floor with us.


It was great day either way. I had a great partner who I hope to get to play w/ again and we were vanquished by a total gentleman (who I also hope to play with again). And the setting wasn't too shabby either.


 

[C. Squier]

Bill, I have the same dream....except its that I'm in college and I'm running late for a final to a class that I didn't go to all semester.  Being 7 years out of school, I'm hoping I'll stop having that recurring dream, but I still probably have it once a week.  Though if I switch it to your version and its at Cypress Point, I don't think it'll be any better. 

[Pete_Pittock]

Bill,
Mine is never being able to tee off because of a low ceiling or some other structural reason. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[CJ Carder]

My recurring dream is this:

I'm playing a top level course, usually one I've been invited to play, it's never clear which one.

My appointed tee time arrives and I am ready to head onto the tee.

This is where my dream diverges.

Usually I'm playing Augusta National in my dream.  I show up on the first tee only to find out that what I've seen on tv is really a mockup television studio made to look like a course.  In my dream, Augusta is part-muni and part lighted par 3 course from Myrtle Beach.  Anyway, I show up at the tee and am so disappointed that I proceed to make a double par 10 on the first hole.  I then get around to #2 and #3 ("Amen Corner") and they are back to back short par 3's.  It's usually at this point where someone comes running out to me to tell me there's been some kind of mistake.  I was not supposed to play the course - I was actually invited there to work as a servant for a few days because they needed help with the kitchen duties and also picking up trash around the ground.

Then I wake up in a cold sweat.

[Bob_Huntley]

I wrote about this on this site some years ago.

A recurrent dream is being late, rushing to the first tee which is a table in the dining room, trying to push a tee into the table and then teeing off through a small window. it gets weirder from there.

I have been told by a fellow member of the the club that the Stanford Psych. Department is anxious to interview me. I wonder why?

Bob

[Ryan Farrow]

Bill,
Mine is never being able to tee off because of a low ceiling or some other structural reason. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HAHAHA! I have the same problem . I typically find my dream games of golf indoors for some reason, and it is usually on the first tee where there is a wall in the way and I cannot even bring the club far enough back to make a swing. I try to move around and reposition, but I can still not swing the golf club. Horrible, absolutely horrible. I have also found myself playing the likes of Oakmont, Cypress,Bethpage, at courses just completely and utterly, ridiculously not even close to the original, yet I still think I am playing that said course.  Great post, and glad to see others have the same screwed up dreams.

[rboyce]

part lighted par 3 course from Myrtle Beach. 

What's so wrong with a lighted par 3 in Myrtle Beach? One of them is reviewed in Doak's Confidential Guide.

 

[George Pazin]

My frustration is that I have the tee time dream, the missing class all semester dream AND the teeing off in the living room dream. I love my life - yet my life in my dreams seems marred by frustration. Someone must be trying to tell me something.

[Pete_Pittock]

3

[Bill_McBride]

Well, I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one.  Let's hear more, don't be bashful.  This is cheaper than psychoanalysis, and our hours are a full 60 minutes.

[Kalen Braley]

Bill,

My golf dreams are pretty similar to yours.  I get on the first tee and my clubs are nowhere to be found, or I can't find my shoes, or I'm waiting for a friend who never shows up.  And if I do tee-off I can't find my ball.  I rarely get to play more than 1-2 holes before the dream completely deviates and I'm playing hide and seek on the golf course or something strange like that.

I do have very odd dreams from time to time.  Once I even killed David Letterman...not sure why, but I did.  One of my funnest dreams was being chased by a cop.  For whatever reason, I realized it was just a dream so I kept on speeding Grand Theft Auto style.   

[Jim Nugent]

I had similar dreams, but usually I was playing in the U.S. Open or other pro tournament when the mishaps took place. 

[Jim Johnson]

Well Bill, if you really want to know...

Last night, about 4:30am, had to let the dog out to do his thang...
after I let him back in, I was wide awake, so laid down on the couch for awhile. Had trouble falling asleep. About 5:30, thought maybe I'd turn on the tv, but didn't think the Open coverage would have started by then. Lo and behold, it was on. Watched for awhile, and then dozed off about 7:30. Zzzzzzzzzz. Woke up at 8:30, and thought I'd stroll into the bedroom and get some real sleep, so I did that. Zzzzzzzzz...and then awoke at 10:00 from a phone call. Between 8:31am and 10:00am, I had the most bizarre dream...

4 of us were golfing Pebble Beach. I was joined by my brother, a good friend of his, and the fourth guy I never did figure out who it was (after waking up), but assume it was a good friend. Anyway, the green fee was $575. The first hole went fine, nothing crazy. Second hole, same thing. Third hole was a drop shot par-3 (on Pebble?!) with a valley of thick trees directly behind the green. And that's where I hit my tee shot. Went down to look for it, and since no one was pushing us from behind I apparently spent about 15 minutes looking for my ball. Never did find it, but when I climbed back up to the greensite, it wasn't the green that I'd climbed up to, but the teebox on #8 (?!). The foursome there were quite surprised to see me. I snuck away, located the 3rd green, dropped a ball (I just happened to have in my pocket, since our power cart was nowhere in sight), chipped on and 3-putted with my 7-iron.

I went to the 4th hole, and the other 3 guys were halfway down the hole. I caught up with them, finished that hole, and then things really went weird.

Apparently the golf course at Pebble Beach (in my dreams anyway) is set up smack dab in the middle of some heavy residential area, and there's a path which leads through a bunch of houses from the 4th green to the 5th tee. And apparently the 5th hole is renowned for being a bad spot for holding up play, so the Pebble Beach company has built a "carport" complete with leather furniture, a bigscreen TV, a mini-bar, washrooms, and showers (must be a good-sized carport). So, we roll in there in our two power carts, look and see that there's 2 groups ahead of us on the tee, and my brother and his buddy decide it'd be a good time to take showers (must have been a hot day). They disappear into the mens room, and my buddy and I grab some beers out of the mini bar and put our feet up and watch some tellie. After awhile it becomes obvious that the two guys aren't coming out of the mens room. I go strolling outside to see how the play is proceeding, while my buddy goes into the mens room to check on my brother and his bud, and a marshal runs up, walkie-talkie in hand, and yells at me that we have to get going, we're holding up play. I panic, jump in the power cart, and go zooming off to find the 5th hole. And yet, I can't find it. Bizarre (not that the carport idea wasn't).

Then I turn around, and can't find the carport. So now I've lost the carport, the 5th tee, and my 3 playing partners. Panic is getting firmly entrenched now, and I drive around trying to find things. I drive through the town of Pebble Beach (?), asking various people on the streets where the 5th hole is. Nobody knows. This is really strange I think, until I finally ask someone why no one seems to know where the 5th hole is, and he tells me it's because nobody who lives in the town actually golfs at the course. It's because the green fees are too expensive. Only the tourists golf. Hmm, this makes sense, I think to myself. Still, I'm determined to find my way back to the golf course, preferably the 5th hole. I see a woman out watering her front garden, and I drive my power cart over her front lawn right up to her, and plead with her to help me. She talks me into going to a seance with her, thinking that might help. Desperate, I agree. For an hour and a half, I sit through this thing, waking up all kinds of spirits, but to no avail. Nobody seems to know where the golf course is.

In a daze, I run outside and jump in the power cart again, and drive around, searching and searching, for hours...

And then the phone rang and woke me up.
 

[Cory Brown]

Clint,

I have that damn missing class dream all the time too.  What's up with that!

My golf dream involves playing a round at Augusta National with some friends, we get to the ninth green and my friends say they've got somewhere else to be so they are going to quit after nine.  I'm never sure what to do.  I usually ignore John Kavanaugh's advice and continue on alone, but by then it has usually regressed into something about a class I've never been to.

Help!

[Tim Bert]

I had one where I finally got to play TOC and it was totally bizarre.  It was one of those dreams that made perfect sense while I was sleeping, but made no sense whatsoever when I woke up - to the point that I can't really describe it.

Suffice it to say that there were some indoor shots through very small openings, and some holes that made no sense at all.  I was posting the worst scores ever because I kept hitting walls and aving trouble getting through all the tiny spots that you had to aim.  I was just hating the course, but trying to pretend I "got it" because everyone had told me such great things about it.

[Bill_McBride]

Interesting that several people have that indoor, restricted swing thing going on.

My wife says she has that dream, which could have a whole new meaning!

[Bill_McBride]

bump - for more dreams.....

[Kalen Braley]

Do they have to be golf dreams?  All my golf dreams end up the same way, I play a couple of holes at best, something always gets in the way or a diversion occurs, and I never get to finish the round.

I've heard a common dream is falling off a cliff or something?  I've never had this one...

[Mike Hendren]

I too have punted class all semester and can't even find the classroom - that and I've repurchased and moved back into our first house for some unknown reason.l

Ditto on the restricted swing, but mine is typically outdoors and  the tee markers have been backed up against a fence. 

Mike

[Sean Leary]

Ditto on the restricted swing, but mine is typically outdoors and  the tee markers have been backed up against a fence. 

Mike

I have this exactly.

Weird deal...

[Stu Grant]

I also have the restricted swing one.  Very stressful because I feel that I'm holding up play but I can't seem to get the club back to make a swing, there's always something in the way.  This is very strange to see so many people have this dream when it's not exactly a problem to find a backswing in real life.

[Tim Bert]

My "missing class" dream is high school, and it isnt technically missing the class.  I have a paper due and I've procrastinated until the last possible moment - actually beyond the last possible moment.  I know I can't finish it, but I try to stay up all night to get it done.  I never make it far enough to find out the ramifications of not completing the task, but I'm completely stressed about it in the dream.