HoodaThunk?

In my quest to pick up the game of golf the last month has represented something of a setback. A medical issue that knocked me out for a couple of weeks, uncooperative weather and general business stuff have all conspired to keep me off the driving ranges and, certainly, off of the golf course. Yesterday, however, we finally managed to get a foursome together and hit the course. As usual, the weather forecast for our tee time was for showers and thunderstorms. It certainly looked like it was going to hit, too, but we got lucky and the front blew through.

And when I say, “blew through,” I mean it. The winds that followed those clouds sure brought lovely skies and sunshine, but also dropped the temperature about 10° and were strong enough to actually blow the balls off the tees on some of the holes. As luck would have it, 2 of the par-5 holes were lined up so your shots were forced to go directly into the wind.

Quick note: in such circumstances, do not stand with the player teeing off directly upwind of you. When he smacks a divot into the air, the grass, mud, and sand will all be caught in that wind and come straight back into you. Specifically into your eyes. Not fun.

I was having a fairly good day with my irons. (We won’t talk about the woods, which is why they never left my bag after the 3rd hole.) On one of these shots, I pulled out my trusty 5-iron, lined up, let fly and got some great air under the ball, a truly happy-looking shot. Right up until the ball reached the top of its arc and the wind halted its forward progress completely. A 5-iron will usually launch the ball in a flatter ballistic arc and allow the ball to keep rolling when it hits the ground. The higher the iron’s number, the higher the arc and the more vertically the ball will hit. A 9-iron will generally hit the ground a “stick” so it doesn’t roll from where you aim.

This shot that started off looking like the perfect 5-iron hit landed so close to straight down that the ball didn’t make it 9 inches from where it impacted. Fascinating, but hardly the kind of shot you hope for. The rest of the round was played like that with us trying our best to figure how much wind there was up where the balls were going. Interesting day and very fun. We have a client golf meeting coming up in a couple of weeks so I need all the practice I can get.