Things Are Never As Bad As It Seems, Although Sometimes It's Hard To Tell.
I was never a great golfer but I played much better than average carrying a single digit handicap One time I am playing on my Company's tab at a charity event at Spyglass in Monterey, CA. I get thrown into a foursome with 2 other guys I didn't know. As it turned out, I was the best golfer .
My buddy carried a solid 15 and the other two guys, well, maybe a 20-21 index but this one guy, 30? As the front nine progresses, keep in mind we're playing in a scramble with one club length drops, whom do you think starts to become the unofficial, self-appointed coach for our foursome, and it wasn't me?
Yup, the guy with a triple bogey index is offering advice to everyone. The guy I can out drive using my 3 iron is telling all of us how to play the next shot and get this, what frigging club to use. After a few holes, I finally lost it at the next tee (5th hole). I was thinking I'd hit an easy 5 and was debating a hard 6 since the flag was tucked in the front of the green. So after I elected to hit a hard 6 counting on the wind to help, just as I was completing my set-up and about to start my back-swing, I hear him ask, "What club are you using?:. I just lost it, totally went berserk. I screamed at him. I told him I had seen better swings in condemned playgrounds in Bedford Stuy, that his was so bad he could lose his golf ball in the ball washer, So I asked what is your index? He replies "I don't have one but the last one I had was maybe 3-4 years ago. So naturally I ask "What was your last index?" . Much to his forthright demeanor, he answers "Around 32-33 but it was coming down. When I started it was in the 40's.".
Imagine how hard it was for me to contain myself. So I told him if he offered another word of advice or encouragement to me, if he even wanted to ask me a question about a golf shot, he needed to send it to me by email after the tournament. Because if he spoke to me one more time about how to play a shot for the remainder of the round, I was going to hit him with whatever golf club was in my hands at the time. I told him I carried a 9 index. Unless someone was 5 strokes better than me, the advice.was questionable at best.
People judge their skills the way they perceive themselves to be, not the way they actually are. Those are the same people that always had a reason when they screwed up like the lard ass in my golf story. Every time during the first 4 holes he'd tell everyone how to hit that next shot but when it was his turn, he'd top a 3 wood, chunk a wedge, fail to get us of a bunker and putting. Whew. forget about it.....no back-swing and all push stroke without any pendulum. Even a simple two putt for him should have been a moral victory. He was absolutely horrible to watch.
The morale to my story is I never had to see that guy again and much to my dismay, a couple years later I got hurt on the job in 2009 and haven't played golf since undergoing 5 shoulder surgeries and currently awaiting word if another surgery will be needed. It looks like my golfing days are over and I'm just struggling nowadays to even play any pool. How does that tune go? Oh yeah, "Obladi Oblada".
Matt B.
