How to be humbled ... in four short lessons

I played golf this morning with three old friends. There was glorious sunshine and it was a very invigorating walk. In the process, I got another quick lesson in humility.

My goal is to break 100 for 18 holes. In this manner, I succeeded by rolling in a 10-foot putt on the last hole for a score of ... 99.

It might have been a lot better if I had remembered a couple of things.

Guys like me are streaky at best. We'll hit some good shots and then we'll snap off one that goes, say, 10 yards or so.

Today got off to a great start. I rescued a wandering tee shot on the first hole and made a par. On the second hole, I rolled in a decent length putt for another par. However, before visions of running out to Blaine to challenge the Seniors who are in town this week for a tournament could take hold, I recorded three triple bogeys and a solo bogey in a span of four holes. So, after six holes, I was 10 over, which is par for the course for me.

The rest of the day was spent with a good shot here and good one there mixed with two bad ones here and a horrendous one there. Somewhere after the first two holes, I forgot what I was doing and spent about six holes hating life.

What I had forgotten was golf is one of those games where you have to know your limits and measure yourself accordingly. I managed to do that a little better on the back side and enjoyed things a little more. I am just not consistently good at this sport and probably never will be. (It would help if I practiced a bit.) If I simply look at golf as a nice workout and time spent with friends, it will be just fine. If I look at it in any other way, I am an idiot because it won't be fun and I'll be wasting my (and other folks) time.

I didn't throw any clubs or utter any oaths today. So it wasn't all bad on my part. But it was a good reminder that we sometimes need to be reminded that we all have restrictions of some sort. It's something I have managed to do well at home ("Honey, I can't lift that dresser because of my bad back, remember?"). So why couldn't I remember it on the golf course?