We belong to a country club. This was a requirement of The Golfer. I will admit that, before we joined, I saw no point in belonging to a country club. And actually, The Golfer’s requirement wasn’t that we belong to a country club, it was that we have home course. A ‘suitable’ home course. With The Golfer being the one who got to define ‘suitable’. Not because he was being chauvinistic, but because I really couldn’t tell one course from another at that point, so I didn’t really care. About any of it actually. It was one of those ‘I’m going to find us a home course - That’s nice dear, have fun.’ kind of things. As it turns out having a home course is a good thing. If you are married to A Golfer a home course can save a lot of wear and tear on the marriage. Lucky for me The Golfer found us one. Anyway. Suitable. For a course to be suitable for The Golfer it had to meet 3 main criteria, and many other smaller ones. The first main suitable criteria was, the course had to be challenging to The Golfer. Which criteria should pretty much go without saying.
The second criteria was each hole had to have a tee that didn’t require you to carry a hazard( side note: carry. Hit over. As opposed to land in. Hit over a sand trap. Hit over the pond). Each hole on a golf course has several tee boxes. Many courses are designed so that no matter which tee box you hit from you have to hit the ball over a stream, or desert, or a lake, or a sand trap, to get to the fairway. This is fine if you are The Golfer. But if you are me, or someone just starting out, you know the minute you step up to the tee chances are good you are going to lose a ball and a stroke. Which can take the fun out things real fast. Hence the criteria that each hole have at least one tee box that didn’t require carrying a hazard.
The third criteria was the course had to have a juniors program. Golfing Offspring numbers 1 and 2 were still quite young at this time, and GO #3 was still just a glint in The Golfers eye, but he was thinking ahead.
We happen to live in an area where there are several country clubs and quite a few private golf clubs with in ½ hours drive. The Golfer took upon himself the arduous task of actually playing all these courses. Took him weeks. He hated every minute of it. ( HA! ). In the end he announced he had found what he was looking for. A great Pete Dye course that was a 7 minute drive from our house. However in order to play there we would have to join the country club whose course it was. So we had lunch with the membership director and before I knew it, I was part of the country club set. Only, as anyone who knows me can tell you, I will never really be part of the country club set. Whole ‘nother post. Anyway. Over the years I have grown to appreciate belonging to said country club. For one thing it has, to quote the Offspring, ‘a really kicka** pool’. Different levels with waterfalls, and slides and a really nice baby pool. But the pool is just a fringe benefit. We didn’t join because of the pool.
So what marriage saving benefits did joining a country club get me? Well to start with a considerable savings in green fees. The Golfer is, well, A Golfer. Which means he has to play golf. At least once a week. More if he can work it into his schedule. Which he usually can. If he doesn’t play he gets cranky and is no fun to be around. He also hits balls at the range at least 2 or 3 times a week. Both to relieve stress, and to keep the handicap low. At any public course he would have to pay green fees each time he played a round, and pay for a bag or two of balls each time he hit the range. With The Golfer this would run into a large sum of money each month. But at the cc he can hit balls for hours every day, and play two rounds every day, and our monthly dues stay the same. And those dues are quite a bit less than the cost of green fees/range balls would be. We come out several thousand dollars ahead every year belonging to a cc, versus The Golfer playing at public courses all the time.
But an even bigger advantage is time. The Golfer and his buddies have a standing tee time early Sat. mornings. He gets up early, plays a 4 hour round, hangs out with the guys for a little, and is home about the time the rest of The Household is up and fully functioning ( the rest of The Household are late risers ). You can’t make standing tee times at public courses. And chances are it will be at least a 5 hour round. Playing on a public course can take 6 hours ( or more ) out of a day, and you have to take what ever tee time you manage to get. So chances are your golfer will be gone the main part of the day. This is how you become a golf widow. The Golfer is not gone for a whole day just to get in a round. And when any of the rest of us want to play, we can call that day and 9 times out of 10 get a time exactly when we want it. And chances are good it will be a 4 hour round. So you can get a lot done on a weekend, and still fit in a round of golf. And The Golfer can work a round ( or two, or three ) into his schedule during the week, since he can be sure of getting a tee time when he wants it, and having a 4 hour round. Which means he only feels the need to play one round on the weekend, when the rest of us are around and want to do things. Including playing a family round of golf.
Which brings up another advantage. Public courses have age limits. Meaning children are not allowed on the range or practice green until they are X years old. Usually around 6. And they have other age limits for the Par 3 course ( if they have one ) and to play 18 holes. If you are A Golfer with children, the age restriction is a big deal. This is not to say that there are toddlers running all over the practice green at the cc. But the rules there are around behavior and parental supervision, not age. If your two year old can behave himself and knows how to handle a putter, he is allowed on the green. Kids aren’t allowed on the course until after noon on the weekends. This is because children play slower, and the good golfers tend to play in the mornings. So they keep the kids off the course to ensure speedy morning play. And if your child happens to be some kind of phenom, who can keep up with the adults, exceptions are made. For our family there is another advantage. Golf is played in foursomes, and there are 5 of us. On a public course we would have to break into a group of 3, and a pair. And the starter would fill out the foursomes with other golfers. At the cc there is a bit of a wink and a nod, and they give us a tee time where there is no one right behind us, and off we go. This is because, unlike at a public course, they know us. They know our kids. They know we will keep up, and that the Offspring know how to behave on a golf course. So they look the other way, and let the 5 of us go off together.
So over the years I have come to see the advantages of the cc. Actually that’s not quite correct. What I have come to see the advantage of is paying to belong to a private course that fits your needs, whether that means some kind of private golf club, or joining a country club. Depending on the amount of golf that takes place in your household, belonging to a private course can actually save you money over the course of a year, and it gets rid of a lot of the time and hassles involved with golf on public courses that can cause wear and tear on a marriage and family life.
This is not to say we don’t play on public courses. We do. There are lots of great public courses around us, some of which are nicer than our home course. But if The Household decides at 11am that maybe we would like to play a round this afternoon after all, but the movie starts at 7, we can call at 11:10, get a tee time for 1:30, play a 4 hour and 20 minute round, grab a quick bite to eat, and be there in time to see all the previews. Which is pretty much the way things went 3 Sundays back. And access like that makes golf an important part of life at The Household, but keeps it from taking over and dictating the schedule of life at The Household. And that is worth paying for.
A great poem is a fountain forever overflowing with the waters of wisdom and delight.A novel is a mirror walking along a main road.A picture is a poem without words.Do you understand?
Posted by: air jordans | July 29, 2010 at 12:24 AM