Gene & Rhoda had invited Steve and me to join them for the Friendship Community Annual Golf Classic. This is of course a fundraiser for Friendship. We had done a couple of other golf benefits, so we were happy to participate with them in this one.
First, let me say that I am not a good golfer at all. I am not even an average golfer. I would probably be classified as a "lousy" golfer. My swing is terrible and I basically can't even hit the ball with irons or hybrids. I do like the driver and I can sometimes get a fairly good and long drive off the tee. I only started playing it about 5 years ago and I don't play that often, but I do enjoy it. We like to play at Willow Valley which is just 9 holes and is easy to walk and the holes aren't too difficult.
When you play a Scramble which is how all benefit golf tournaments are played, everyone hits the ball and then out of the four the best ball is chosen and everyone hits from that spot and you continue this way right onto the green and into the cup. The guys have to tee off a lot further back then the ladies so sometimes it can be an advantage to have women playing with you who can get nice, long shots on their first drive and thus give you a better placement for your next fairway shot. So the hope was that Rhoda and I could help our team by hitting good drives off the tee. Well, Rhoda did her part, but I was off even to my standards. I couldn't do anything right. Usually the ball just dribbled a little bit in front of me, or I missed it completely. Sometimes it went a little bit, but I never had a good, solid hit that amounted to anything. It was a little frustrating, but I tried to enjoy the beautiful day and good company and forget about my poor golf game. When we were pretty close to being finished (I think it was either our 15th or 16th hole) I put my tee in the ground as usual, set my ball on it, and swung my club with a hope and a prayer. It was a beautiful, long, straight shot and by far the best I had all day, which wasn't saying much because I hadn't been hitting anything cleanly. I was relieved to have finally gotten at least one good drive.
Gene & Rhoda drove their cart up to my ball and I heard them saying something to themselves and when Steve and I got there, they told us that this was one of the designated holes that had a prize attached to it. There was a rope down the center of the fairway and a prize would be awarded to the man and woman whose ball landed closest to it off of their tee shot. Well, my ball was about 2 feet to the right of the rope! We marked the spot and sure enough at the end of the day I was the winner! I received a $75.00 gift card to the golf club's pro shop. I was able to purchase a pair of $70.00 golf shoes (I didn't own golf shoes before).
I was happy to have won, but at the same time I felt very undeserving and even a little embarrassed. I had that one lucky shot and it landed me a prize. The rest had played a much better game of golf than I had, and they received nothing. I have always said that life isn't fair, so I guess this is just another example of how the least deserving person comes out on top sometimes. I will definitely appreciate my new golf shoes. Now, if there was just some way that they could help to improve my game!
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