Whip it Out...re-imagined -- Your Worst Year

[Steve Burrows]

Discussions on this board tend to revolve around the good fortune that many of us have of playing golf courses that are generally considered the best in the world.  I, too, have been fortunate in the past, but as the season winds down here in the Midwest, I reflect and notice that this wasn't one of those years.  Not only did I play the least amount of golf in a season since I first started playing, mainly on account of grad school and my two daughters (ages 1 and 3), but so too did the quality of venues suffer greatly, on account of a move to rural Indiana to appease my wife (near to her family and family farm ground).  Listed below are my totals:

   -27 holes at River Crest Golf Course - Covington, IN - an unremarkable municipal course
   -18 holes at Geneva Hills Golf Course - Clinton, IN - an unremarkable municipal course
   -18 holes at Hammock Beach, Ocean Course - Palm Coast, FL - a buddy of mine got married in St. Augustine and this is where he set us up to play.  A few interesting holes.
   -18 holes at Brickyard Crossing, Indianapolis, IN - I had not played here in 15 years, but had a few hours for a twilight round when I was in Indy this summer.  It's quite a lot of fun.

To make matters worse, time constraints even forced me to decline a round this week at Harrison Hills, which is probably the only course of any architectural significance (and certainly pedigree) within 50 miles of where I live.  Now I can honestly say that I enjoy playing golf no matter where I am playing, because to me playing golf is more about spending time with friends or family - and the intrinsic pleasure of hitting the damn ball - but I would be lying if I said I didn't also like the mental challenges associated with more creatively designed golf courses.  So, did anybody have a worse year than this with respect to either quality or quantity, granting that illness may have kept some people sidelined entirely?

[Dan Kelly]

I don't think I played *any* golf between October 1986 and the spring of 1989.

Was working six (or sometimes) seven long days each week, as the perfectionist Editor of an understaffed magazine -- at the end of which, just after New Year's Day, a week after my wife and I had closed on our first home, with her five months' pregnant with our first child, the newly hired Publisher fired me, without notice or cause, on his first (or maybe second) day on the job.

Luckily, a better job awaited down the street.

I had some very golf-thin years when my daughters were particularly busy with sports and music and et cetera -- but those years were golf-thin entirely by my own choosing.

Call if you ever get to the Twin Cities. Plenty of good places to play here in the Upper Midwest.
 

[Steve Burrows]

Call if you ever get to the Twin Cities. Plenty of good places to play here in the Upper Midwest.
 

I'll be a bit south of you in mid-November; my wife has an appointment at Mayo.  Should be perfect weather for golf

[Ben Sims]

Highlights of 2013

The Rawls Course
Chambers Bay
Pumpkin Ridge
Aldarra
Fircrest GC

Pretty slow year compared to 2009-2012.  Returning home from a 60-day stint soon though, maybe something cool will happen!  

[Dan Kelly]

Call if you ever get to the Twin Cities. Plenty of good places to play here in the Upper Midwest.
 

I'll be a bit south of you in mid-November; my wife has an appointment at Mayo.  Should be perfect weather for golf

It could well be. Has been numerous years.

Good choice, coming to the Mayo Clinic -- the best-run organization I've ever dealt with.

[cary lichtenstein]

Worst year was 2010. Our daughter had a brain aneurysm and my wife stage 3 esophageal cancer. By some miracle, both are alive today and doing well, but I can tell you we spent 7 months in hospitals that year.

[JLahrman]

As far as golf goes, my years have been getting progressively worse for the last ten years.

However, the reasons they have been getting worse - discovering other passions, getting married, becoming a father, etc., haven't been too bad.

I love to play golf, but I'm not sure if I want it to play a bigger role in my life or not.

[Steve Burrows]

As far as golf goes, my years have been getting progressively worse for the last ten years.

However, the reasons they have been getting worse - discovering other passions, getting married, becoming a father, etc., haven't been too bad.

I love to play golf, but I'm not sure if I want it to play a bigger role in my life or not.

It's interesting that you say that.  In spite of the tone of my original post, it seems that I really don't miss playing golf as much as I thought I would.  Other interests and obligations have gotten in the way, but like yourself, I'm not sure if I would change that.  My wife has actually spent quite a bit of time in the hospital this year as well, but is doing better now.  Last weekend, she took our daughters with her and gave me the day to myself.  She assumed that I would go play golf, but I decided instead to go for a 3-hour hike at a nearby state park.  And even when everyone in my house is healthy, golf is certainly not what we're going to do for exercise, or simply just to get outside; going for smaller hikes is something that all of us can do together (with the 1-year old strapped into the backpack of course).    

[JLahrman]

It's interesting that you say that.  In spite of the tone of my original post, it seems that I really don't miss playing golf as much as I thought I would.  Other interests and obligations have gotten in the way, but like yourself, I'm not sure if I would change that.  My wife has actually spent quite a bit of time in the hospital this year as well, but is doing better now.  Last weekend, she took our daughters with her and gave me the day to myself.  She assumed that I would go play golf, but I decided instead to go for a 3-hour hike at a nearby state park.  And even when everyone in my house is healthy, golf is certainly not what we're going to do for exercise, or simply just to get outside; going for smaller hikes is something that all of us can do together (with the 1-year old strapped into the backpack of course).    

Well that sounds a lot like me, except my wife hasn't been in the hospital this year. If I didn't have a family, I would play more than I do now but I wonder how much more (even though it's not having a family that kills golf; it's having a job).

I'm not sure I would like golf as much anymore if I played as much as some of the crazies on this site.

[Garland Bayley]

When starting a career with a young family, I went golfing once a year with the guys from the "plant". One year I played the first hole of Rose City Golf Course, slipped walking off the green and broke my leg.

If anyone had a worse year than one golf hole and a broken leg, I will be surprised.

[Will MacEwen]

Garland - relative to par, that had to be your best year though. 

[Brian Potash]

Garland - relative to par, that had to be your best year though. 

The funniest post I have read here in a long time.

Well done!

[Dwight Phelps]

In May 2005 I played my last rounds of college golf (36 holes at Los Serranos GC in SoCal).  It wasn't the best golf team (Div 3) and I wasn't the best golfer, but that day I shot my only - EVER - under par 18.  I had been practicing and playing, for free, at local Annandale CC, Oakmont CC (Glendale, CA), and San Gabriel CC.  With my last round, that all ended.

I put my clubs away and didn't pick them back up for 2.5 years (actually PAYING for golf had become very passee) until I finally couldn't stand it anymore and got back out on the course.

But those 2+ years were the hinterlands of my golf existence, and even when I got back into it, the quality of courses was not the same as the 3 CC rotation I got to use while on the team.

[Ian Andrew]

I played 8 rounds over 6 years while going to University.
I had to work full time during school to pay for everything.
Then I worked on a construction crew in the summer 6 days a week.

Not one of them was more than a quick round at a local muni...
I've never been the same player that I was since...

[jeffwarne]

1995
Rather than returning to the MET Section in the summer and its fabulous courses, I spent both winter and summer teaching in Miami..,,,,
the business was good, but the weather and the courses were awful.(courses didn't really bother me in the winter as the days were short and full of work--and golf in January-even in Miami-is better than no golf up north)
Fortunately I did find a little gem (Miami Springs-Ross) which was kind've fun escape from Doral and the crap courses they play in the South Florida PGA Section

[Mark Saltzman]

Jeff, I've never heard of Miami Springs, is it NLE?

[Sean Leary]

Garland - relative to par, that had to be your best year though. 

The funniest post I have read here in a long time.

Well done!

+1

[jeffwarne]

Jeff, I've never heard of Miami Springs, is it NLE?

seems to still be open-lots of history
when I was there a tornado(somewhat unusual unless during hurricane) went through and wiped out the area of Miami Springs-devastating many mature trees on the golf course, which separated it from the blight that is the area near Doral and the airport.
Leave it to me to find the Goat Hill of an area with no hills

[Kyle Casella]

In May 2005 I played my last rounds of college golf (36 holes at Los Serranos GC in SoCal).  It wasn't the best golf team (Div 3) and I wasn't the best golfer, but that day I shot my only - EVER - under par 18.  I had been practicing and playing, for free, at local Annandale CC, Oakmont CC (Glendale, CA), and San Gabriel CC.  With my last round, that all ended.

I put my clubs away and didn't pick them back up for 2.5 years (actually PAYING for golf had become very passee) until I finally couldn't stand it anymore and got back out on the course.

But those 2+ years were the hinterlands of my golf existence, and even when I got back into it, the quality of courses was not the same as the 3 CC rotation I got to use while on the team.

You must have played in the SCIAC- me too (2006-10)! With that course rota, I'm guessing Oxy?

My worst year was June 2010-June 2011. I played 5 times:
-Nicklaus Tournament at PGA West (yuck)
-La Quinta Dunes (double yuck)
-La Quinta Mountain- I like this one
-Hideaway Clive
-Bel Air CC, the saving grace of my year mostly because it is a really fun experience

[Ivan Lipko]

It could be worse.
This year I played a ton of golf but no bug names on the list. Among the highlights the Panther Lake at OCN, Waldorf Astoria in Orlando, Kahkwa and Whispering Woods in Erie, PA and Linna and Hirsala GC in Finland.

Also played a bunch of stuff around Orlando.

I have some plans to improve on the quality of the courses in the years to come.

[Bill Vogeney]

1996

I was in grad school at the time and working full time. I spent all day Friday and Saturday in class, probably three weekends a month.

Also battled a bad back that caused me to not make a swing for 10 weeks.

Top it off, my son was a toddler.

It was a rough year for golf.

[Brad Tufts]

I get to play alot so my answer is a bit different.

I've kept track of my rounds since 2004, and my lightest year was 2008 with 91.5 rounds.  The "killer" was 18 days of no golf for my wedding and honeymoon from 6/21 to 7/8.  

Longest stretch of light golf was Sept-Oct-Nov in 2006 when I played the equivalent of 7 full rounds with no noteworthy course to share...is the front 9 at Newport National noteworthy?

And of course I live in a temperate climate so I tend to play very few rounds in Nov-Dec-Jan-Feb-March of any year, unless its on vacation to a warm spot.

[John Foley]

2001 - Decided to run my 1st Marathon - lots of training all year - Ran Chicago in October - great experience.

Think I played a total of 5 rounds - 4 of which were on a late in the year annual golf trip.

The biggest bummer is turning down the invite to go to San Hills as it was in the middle of Sept w/ the race a month away and 2 girls under 4 at home.

[Guy Nicholson]

I played very little in the six years between third year of university, when I stopped going home (and working at a golf club) during the summer months, and the end of my time as an expat journalist in Southeast Asia.

I didn't even want to play while I was in Asia -- if you think golf comes with class connotations in the West, you should see how it feels in a country where the majority of the population makes less than a dollar a day.

[Dwight Phelps]

You must have played in the SCIAC- me too (2006-10)! With that course rota, I'm guessing Oxy?

My worst year was June 2010-June 2011. I played 5 times:
-Nicklaus Tournament at PGA West (yuck)
-La Quinta Dunes (double yuck)
-La Quinta Mountain- I like this one
-Hideaway Clive
-Bel Air CC, the saving grace of my year mostly because it is a really fun experience

Yup, Oxy.  I was there 2003-2005, though.