Golf. (Credit: Soheb Zaidi/Unsplash)
Welcome to the first column of the Golf Guy. My goal is not to improve your game, or to blatantly advertise for various golf courses or products. There are plenty of pros out there who can teach you far better than myself, and every golf show is basically a gratuitous self promotion infomercial for some course or product.
So what is this? It’s basically a regular golfer who has a crappy handicap (well over 20) sharing experiences and thoughts on all things golf. Hopefully, I’m like most of you; below average, not wealthy, slightly overweight and moderately happy.
If you are not any, or all, of those things you wouldn’t be a golfer. You see we golfers need the escape. We need the 3-6 hours on the course to get away from all our woes: Work, spouse, kids, felonies. Instead of spending time for self improvement by reading books, doing yoga, helping with charitable causes, we play a game that humbles us, makes us want to throw metallic objects and occasionally gives us joy. We are weird and we know it.
I have been golfing since I was a teenager sneaking onto courses after 6pm so I wouldn’t have to pay. Like many of you, I started out with a set of hand-me-down clubs, mud stained balls and sneakers. Then I realized I could work at a country club (as a barback of course) and I could get on the course on Mondays for free. What a deal! Now I am an adult who works and makes some money, but not enough money to not work and play golf all day.
For all the country club players, I envy you, despise you and love you. You are obsessed with this ridiculous sport as much as I am, just wealthier. And while you have your clubs cleaned after each round and enjoy fabulous post-round massages, you are also just as tortured by this sport. You are just as much a slave to the dimpled white ball as us public links slobs. We are brothers and sisters! You folks just have better cars, houses and hygiene. Congrats, you earned it, but don’t think you are not the same as us lowly public players.
This column is also about the many courses the Philadelphia area has to offer, public and private. Philadelphia golfers have as much pride in their courses as they do in their sports teams. Most Philly golfers will be the first to tell you that this area has some of the greatest golf courses in the world. Those not in the know will scoff at that notion, but it is fact! Some of the greatest golf courses in the world are right here in Philly: Pine Valley, Merion, Aronomik and my favorite Twin Woods in Hatfield!
I will be writing about courses I have played and, hopefully, courses I will someday be allowed to play. For now it’s just public tracks that we all can play. However, I am a mooch, and if you want me to riff on your private club, I’m here for you. I will also try to feature some of the people and players from this area that make the game special. Finally, I will do my best to let you know about local happenings in the world of golf here in the Philly area. Did you know the PGA tour will be in Flourtown this year?
I will try my best to do all this with humor, wisdom and grit. I look forward to your snarky anonymous comments on social media.
(The Back Nine is a biweekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Edward Levine. The views expressed are his own and are not representative of North Penn Now or Montgomery County.)
