Old Balls—New Terrain

I went to Florida last week to help a friend move her parents. Instead of doing that my friend and I tramped around a few state parks, searched for sea shells and swam in her parents’ pool. I did no work.

However, I did play a round of golf using my friend’s clubs—a set of Ram irons from 25 years ago with steel shafts and the original grips. These grips were so slick that just touching them gave me goose bumps. How do people play golf with grips like that?

Fortunately, there was this big flea market nearby called The Dome that had a small golf shop where I got the clubs regripped. The guy at the golf shop knew a lot about the Midwest wholesalers, J&M and Cam Golf, so he filled me in on the scandal involving Cam Golf Wholesale and Titleist while I waited for the grips to get done. (Pretty weird hearing gossip about your “neighbors” from a stranger 1000 miles away.)

My friends’ parents moved to Florida nearly 30 years ago, specifically to be by a golf course. Her father played golf at the local club three or four times a week, yet his equipment was also 25 years old. More unexpected, however, were the golf balls in our bags.

I managed to wallop the ball with a no-name 5-wood and wondered why the ball went barely 100 yards. After a few more hits like this I realized it wasn’t the clubs. I asked my friend about the golf balls and found out the last time new balls were bought was when her dad turned 70—in other words, about ten years ago. The balls in her bag were ones her dad found in the ponds on the club course.

I wasn’t just using old golf balls, I was using old USED golf balls.

My friend told me her dad was good at saving money. I guess using old golf balls would be an example of that. I’m not sure, though, if playing three times a week with balls like the ones I had was entirely rational. How much fun can it be?

When I decided to look for birds instead of our balls I started to enjoy our round.