What a fantastic day on the golf course! After 5 months, the day finally arrived where I could stop talking about golf and actually, well, you know…..GOLF! My first round of golf was at the Roundel Glen  Golf Course at Astra, Ontario. The course is in awesome shape and experienced very little damage from the winter.

Before anyone asks, I will be posting my promised blog about building a support team for your golf play tomorrow. Today was so much fun, I just had to talk about it. Now on with today’s round.

Today, I decided to play as a walk on. My usual crew were busy, but I could not miss this fantastic opportunity to play golf in 20 degree weather. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and my enthusiasm to play my first round was through the roof. Yes, my GAF (golf attitude factor) was extremely high!

As I walked to the Pro Shop, I noticed that my old friend Kim was behind the desk. Kim is a great guy and always goes the extra mile to ensure the members and new customers feel welcome. Then Mike Claire, the general manager, poked his head around the corner to say hi. My first round was starting off better than I expected.

After a quick inquiry about a game, Kim pointed me to the first tee. There was a twosome ready to tee off and I could join them if I wanted. It was a perfect opportunity to play, so I skipped my warm up. As I approached the first tee, I was met by two gentlemen, Bang and Minh, who welcomed me with open arms. We immediately hit it off and for the next 3 hours and 20 minutes, we laughed and joked around. It was a perfect way to start my golfing year.

Minh and Bang. Two grateful golfers!

Minh and Bang are great friends. Both are refugees from south Vietnam and came to Canada many years ago. They met fishing about 15 years ago and expanded their friendship to the golf course. They are equally matched and today’s match was decided on the 18th hole. Today, Bang was the victor, but according to their stories it is always anyone’s game. The line of the round has to go to Minh; on the 15th green, Bang was ribbing Minh that he wanted to see a two putt so Bang could win the hole! Minh calmly retorted, “Just close your eyes and hear my one putt!” It was a classic line that I will have to use in the future. Bang and Minh were great playing partners. They kept the round light and extremely enjoyable. Thank you guys for a memorable first round!

One of the several tough shots I had today. This is the 12th hole on the Roundel Glen Golf Course.

My round went exactly as I expected. I started off very slow, but as the back nine unfolded, I felt more comfortable with my swing. My stats were not indicative of the round. I hit 10/14 fairways, 8 greens in regulation, and 32 putts. My score was a 79 with 2 doubles, 5 bogies, 2 birdies, and 9 pars. This may look good, but all my doubles and 3 bogies were caused by very poor chipping! However, that is fixable with practice. It is way to early in the year to worry about my short game.

Today’s round had nothing to do with my score and everything to do with playing in the moment. I made my share of ugly shots, but just relaxing and enjoying walking the links was very good for my mental game. As I said in previous posts, I am going to enjoy the journey of golfing this year as much as focusing on being a scratch golfer. I believe there is a balance in there somewhere and I just have to figure out what that balance is for me.

I hope many of you are hitting the links this weekend! If the rest of my season is going to be anything like today – man am I going to have fun!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!