{"id":21368,"date":"2018-02-08T08:27:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T15:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21368"},"modified":"2018-02-08T08:27:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T15:27:15","slug":"in-mid-winter-dreaming-of-better-days-on-the-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/02\/in-mid-winter-dreaming-of-better-days-on-the-links\/","title":{"rendered":"In mid-winter, dreaming of better days on the links"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Course\"<\/a>

Larry Olson<\/p>

A mid-winter golf course scene reveals dormant grass, and over yonder, a green covered with protective tarps. Tough conditions, for sure.<\/p><\/div>\n

Football is over. Baseball hasn\u2019t started. Basketball is in full swish and pucks slide effortlessly across frozen water and spilled blood. It\u2019s a transition time of the year when sports fans flip through the TV channels searching: searching for something. More is needed than sitcom reruns and dreary news headlines. Something important is missing in life.<\/p>\n

There is walking, hiking, skiing and skating. Ice fishing can use up an enormous amount of money, time and energy. Shoveling snow, chipping ice and hauling wood are pastimes with lifestyle benefits. Vacuuming, making bread, cleaning bathrooms and doing laundry keep the winter hours from piling up, but there\u2019s a dark room in the back of your head. Something is absent.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not sick, but you\u2019re not right. You\u2019re busy, but haunted with an absence of purpose. You\u2019re not lopping off people\u2019s hats that you meet on a sidewalk, following funeral processions or contemplating going to sea. It\u2019s grey in your being. Frowning is easy.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re afflicted. Nauseated. Hamstrung. Hogtied. Lonely. On edge. You can do anything you want, but struggle starting anything. You know your illness. You\u2019ve been repressing the presence of this affliction since your last beer and shared laughs with buddies rehashing shots and scores on the 19th\u00a0hole. It has happened before.<\/p>\n

The affliction is golf. Yes, golf. It\u2019s what\u2019s missing.<\/p>\n

Golf is the ultimate four-letter word. Hate and love stewing in the same pot. It is barnyard muck and grandchildren\u2019s hugs mixed together. It repels you and transfixes you in the same moment. It is past (memories), present (longing) and future (playing St. Andrews) all mixed together. It\u2019s people, places and things all in a blender. It\u2019s sickness and health. It\u2019s life. It\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Driving by a winter-closed golf course is extremely sad. Greens are covered for protection. Sand traps rest hip deep in snowdrifts. Whitetail deer sleep in the middle of brown fairways: no one playing through their simple contentment. It is almost as sad as driving by an open, lush green summer golf course with people playing, laughing and swearing while you drive to an appointment to have your oil changed. It isn\u2019t fair. It isn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to remember that first successful swing at 10 years of age that propelled an old Blue Max golf ball onto a green. It is still fresh in your mind. A favorite uncle put the club in your hand, placed your hand in the grip and showed you the simple swing.<\/p>\n

Hooked. Afflicted for life.<\/p>\n

As kids, we neighborhood hooligans snuck on to a local golf course with regularity. Parked our bikes in the bushes and waited for an opening on the back nine. Our golf clubs, \u201cborrowed\u201d from our fathers and mothers, rattled against our rear tire fenders while dangling from our shoulders on our way toward cow pasture larceny. An understanding golf marshal never kicked us off, but made sure we didn\u2019t interfere with paying customers. Real golfers. Ones that knew golf etiquette.<\/p>\n

The memory of an attempted robbery and felony assault that happened on a golf course can stir me. A drunk stumbled out of his car with a knife in his hand and demanded money from our foursome. A flurry of 2 irons turned him back quickly. Now, thinking back on how much money has been won and lost through \u201cfriendly wagers\u201d on golf courses, I should have paid that robber up front.<\/p>\n

\"Cup\"<\/a>

Larry Olson<\/p>

On a putting green, a flag atop a cup stands strong against the wind and snow. No practice today.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then, there are the memories of playing the game of golf with my father-in-law. Over the years, it became a regular and appreciated occurrence. We played as often as distance and health allowed. It is missed. But, the first time was a bull-headed test of endurance. The golf course in Columbus, Mont., when there were still sand greens, provided the setting. It was late February or early March.<\/p>\n

Our oldest daughter had just been born and Grandma and Grandpa came to meet her. They stayed a few days. Within a few hours of their arrival, the suggestion that a round of golf could be had seemed an essential outing. My father-in-law was a Marine: First Marine Division \u2014 the Big Red One. He had survived the first wave landing at Peleliu and second wave landing at Okinawa. Unscathed. He was hardcore. Compared to him, I was a liberal nobody \u2014 just married to his daughter and the father of his granddaughter.<\/p>\n

My set of clubs would be shared. We were walking. It wasn\u2019t a bad start. It was breezy and cloudy with winds coming in from the north. By the sixth hole, snow was falling sideways. Neither one of us would stop the madness. We located our golf balls in the fairway and continued to hit as the snow piled up. Kept hitting. Forged on. Head down. Persevered. By the time we raked the snow and sand on the ninth green, our right ears were plugged with snow. The right side of our faces and clothing covered with snow. Hands that were close to frozen formed a bond.<\/p>\n

We had a beer at the New Atlas before going home. Talked over our game. Melted.<\/p>\n

My wife was with him as he lay in hospice. I talked to him by phone. He couldn\u2019t talk and wasn\u2019t supposed to be able to hear anyone due to the drugs keeping him comfortable. He was almost gone. After talking to him, my wife told me in a later conversation that he smiled broadly and seemed to laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat had you talked about?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

I told her:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAn affliction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The snow is deep outside. The clubs need a good cleaning. Checking the condition and quantity of golf balls, tees and gloves is on the to-do list.<\/p>\n

Spring is just around the corner. Better get ready.<\/p>\n

Larry Olson is a retired librarian who lives with his beautiful wife, Lin, in Big Timber.\u00a0 He is mostly a happy guy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Football is over. Baseball hasn\u2019t started. Basketball is in full swish and pucks slide effortlessly across frozen water and spilled blood. It\u2019s a transition time of the year when sports fans flip through the TV channels searching: searching for something. More is needed than sitcom reruns and dreary news headlines. Something important is missing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":21370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[6738,1278,654],"class_list":["post-21368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","tag-golf","tag-st-andrews","tag-winter","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21373,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21368\/revisions\/21373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}