"Welcome to golf"

If anything typifies my experience with golf, it's my playing ability over the past few weeks ... well, my abilities with one certain club - the pitching wedge.

For the past month or so, I haven't been able to hit the PW at all. Used to be that my "go-to" clubs were my 4-iron, 9-iron and PW. But for some reason, the PW has absolutely eluded me recently, especially the last three weeks of the golf league I'm in.

Speaking of which, the league is over and Kell and I (Team 5) came in at 5-6-3 for the season. We're missed the playoffs, but it was a lot of fun playing every week.

Anyway, I lost all touch with the PW ... until yesterday. Kell and I shot 18 at the Woods (7 a.m. tee time ... amazing) and it was like night and day with the PW. I couldn't do anything wrong with it. Every shot had great loft, I was dropping the ball exactly (well, most of the time) where I wanted it and was swinging it consistently. I was even hitting out of very tall rough with it. Go figure.

Told a co-worker this morning about this anomaly and he smiled and said, "Welcome to golf!" Indeed.

Playing yesterday morning reminded me why I love this game so much. There is nothing like standing in the tee box at 7 a.m., sun has only be up for about an hour at the most, the air is still, fresh-cut grass and a faint dirt smell permeate the air and there's barely a sound save for a few birds. There was no one else on the course at the time, so it felt like Kell and I were the only two people in the world.

But even when there's others on the course, it's fun to hear people shouting in celebration on other holes when someone does something well.

Yesterday's pace was fantastic because we didn't have any other players pressing us. We shot our round in about 4 1/2 hours, which is pretty good.

So it's a bummer I won't be playing every week, but I've got a tournament or two and some golf dates lined up and Kell and I have already said we can't wait to golf in the Fall when it's cooler out.

So at least I have that going for me ... which is nice.