Today’s article is a bit of a public service announcement, a bit funny (at least I think), and a bit of tip for beginner golfers. I understand that this is a bit of long shot, yet I think after you read my article you will see that I hit the mark. First, let me offer the suggestion that around the golf course there are many amenities that many golfers either do not understand what they are for or just don’t use them…..properly. I am not trying to point fingers at anyone, but during my last round I witnessed something that made me laugh and shake my head at the same time.
My story all starts with this picture on the left. I was getting ready for my round and was standing near my golf cart. I was mentally preparing for my stroke play match (which I won) and relaxing. As I was standing in front of the club house waiting for Fernando show up, a gentlemen used the spike cleaner at the door.
Now, for those beginners who do not know what the contraption on the left is, well it is a spike cleaner. It is used to remove the grass and mud from the soles of your shoes. The very interesting aspect of a spike cleaner is that you are supposed use the device before you enter into the club house.
The reason we use the spike cleaner before going into the clubhouse is that keeps the excess grass from inside the clubhouse. Also, when the soles of shoes are full of grass and stuff the floors are very slippery and potentially dangerous. Thus, it is customary to clean our shoes with the odd looking device before entering the building.
I figure you know where this is going. The gentlemen I saw using the spike cleaner, stated to his friends after coming out of the clubhouse that he was not ready for the back nine.
He cleaned his shoes after coming out of the clubhouse! Yup, I may be the only person who thinks that this a funny / crazy, in my mind the spike cleaner is supposed to used before you enter the clubhouse. Safety and cleanliness are my reasons and I stand by them! This whole situation tickled my funny bone.
As you can see, I hit my mark about this article being a public service announcement, a bit funny, and a bit of tip for beginner golfers. That is my story for today, but I have to ask when (if) you use the spike cleaner?
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
I was happy when I found ours. Our clubhouse isn’t much. Just a cooler with some soft drinks, Gatorade, and water they sell with no markup which is nice, and you go there to rent a cart if you want to ride or for a score card, but there’s nothing else there. No room to hang out or anything. We have an outdoor area for that. And our course isn’t set up like most our now. You don’t go out and come back each nine, you go out, and you come back. Just once. At the turn, there’s a little covered area with a water fountain and a place to relieve yourself but that’s it. So they put the shoe cleaner next to the cart path behind the 18th hole. It’s in a spot where I’d generally been looking ahead to the clubhouse or first tee to see who’s here yet. We have a sign in sheet on the side of the club house and that’s about all I generally see of it.
Anyway, the reason I was happy, before finding it I tried cleaning my shoes by pounding them on the ground behind my car. Once. It caused some really amazingly loud and persistent echo’s among the complex. lol I didn’t realize just how terrible spot I was positioned in. See our complex is huge. 5000 condo’s in the complex. This section around the golf courses is just one corner. And we capture all the water that comes down on us around here and that’s a lot. The tower is 2 and a half stories tall and I’m guessing close to 50 yards wide. One monster cylinder full of water that keeps every corner of the property hydrated including the two courses. Anyway, parked next to it, the echo from hitting my shoe bounced off that tower in ever direction. And across from me was our nine hole course. It runs away from where I was sitting and is lined with large 72 unit X shaped condos lining either side of it about maybe 600 yards apart and at least 2 and a half city block long. So lots of surfaces to bounce off of. Lots. All spaced exactly the same distance apart. Slapping my shoe on the ground at that spot was like setting off a machine gun in stereo. 🤣 A truly amazing echo chamber only available in a concrete jungle. One I’m not likely to set off again. Well, maybe for the grandkids someday. I’ve been all over the place and heard some great echo’s before but never anything like that. That curved wall just sent the sound waves out perfectly because of where I’d parked. Some walls shot it straight back and some shot back out at other condos across the way and it reverberated everywhere. I can’t do a better job describing it I don’t think. I has to be heard. But not from me. I’ll clean my shoes with the tool from now on. lol
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Kevin,
Apparently you have an echo at your golf course. 😉 You complex sounds pretty amazing. Loads of people living near on another, not sure I would like that….except for the golf course!
Cheers Jim
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Most of my family lives in places like you do. And I thought about it, but it’s not really for me. I want to do things. Not fix them or keep them mowed. And where I live we have plenty of things to do. With just under a million on my side of the bay and a million and a half on the other side, we have a lot offered to us. I can catch a hockey game. The stadium is 45 minutes away on the other side of the bay. Football is there too. Baseball is on our side. We have the Transitions Tournament played 20 minutes at most from my door. Miles of beaches. Every kind of food you can think of. Movies, theater, concerts, comedy, you name it, it’s here. But on our side of the bay at least it’s beach town, not big city. And it’s golf mecca. Copperhead and TPC top the list close by but there’s hundreds of others within an hours drive. And free golf outside both my doors. I live on things like smoked salmon and blackened grouper. Or maybe some Tai food, or Cuban or I have a Sunrise on the beach at sunset while scarfing down Calamari. Another favorite of late is the scraps I get tossed from those grilling in their backyard as I play in the evening. We have some good cooks living here. lol They can make it kind of hard to concentrate on the shot at times. I may not hear the crickets or see the hummingbirds on my porch. And I may not have the miniature horses roaming my nine acre back yard like others in my family, but I’m content here.
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Kevin,
Sounds like your own bit of heaven!
Cheers Jim
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Jim, at least the guy used it on his feet and didn’t try to clean his clubs. There are a lot of beginners who’ve joined the ranks, and COVID seems to have brought them out. Many don’t understand the equipment and traditions. Some lack common sense.
When courses figured out people weren’t getting COVID from bunker rakes, they returned them. I still see many un-raked bunkers, as the newbies never learned how to clean up after themselves. One piece of equipment that many newbies ARE familiar with is the bluetooth speaker. Don’t get me started!
Thanks,
Brian
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Brian,
I am smiling right now because these challenges seem universal. I definitely do not like loud music on the course. And the bunker rakes….you nailed it. And of course the most common of them all is fixing a ball mark properly, if at all. Rant over, have a great weekend.
Cheers Jim
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