Yes, Andrew, in my tale it was a total aberration, completely unexpected, a fluke. As I have become a geezer golfer, with perhaps something of a vanity handicap from not posting rounds when I walk off the course in disgust, I must say that this is what I miss most: the possibility of shooting the occasional good round. I call it the “hope of the possible.” I think it is a major motivator for most avid golfers, no matter their skill level. Play this game long enough on your home course and, whatever your ideal score—eagle, birdie, par, or bogey--you’ve probably done it on every hole on the course. We can all entertain a sports fantasy: playing middle linebacker for the Bears, hitting the walk-off homer to win the Series, scoring a goal to win the World Cup, whatever. Yet, as golfers, standing on that first tee, this is not a fantasy that we’ll never experience. We’ve actually done it—birdied or parred every hole on the course, whatever the standard—and maybe, just maybe, we can do it today, play the round of our life, because it’s possible, we’ve actually done it at one time or another, so why not today?
When that possibility goes away, however delusional, whatever the standard of excellence for any golfer, the game changes and the enthusiasm for it diminishes just a bit. Of course I know there many other ways to enjoy the game than shooting a score and most of us cultivate them to keep our interest. I’m just saying this thread illustrates an important aspect of how we learned to love the game.