Snapshots from a Golf Cart - or How to Ruin Your Husband's Golf Game in One Short Morning 9/23/09

Ted just started playing golf after he retired, so he is relatively new to the game.  Since we have been up here this summer, he has played only once – with Duck, our neighbor.  This morning he got up with golf on the brain.  He walked over and asked Duck if he wanted to play, but he was going off island today.  He came back in the house, looked at me (as if he knew I was his only chance of not having to go alone) and said, “You want to come with me to play 9 holes?” 

Now even that statement is hilarious to me.  He knew I wasn’t going to actually “play” – what he wanted was someone to tag along that he could complain to when he didn’t hit well (or maybe that’s in baseball).  Anyway, it was a cloudy morning, and I didn’t really have any other plans, so I said, “Sure, I’ll bring the camera!”  Ted just rolled his eyes.

He had called yesterday for a tee time (10 a.m.), so we rode our bikes down to the pro shop at the Grand.  Jason, the pro, got us into a cart (the really fun part of this game as far as I’m concerned), and away we went.

The Grand has two courses – the Jewel and the Woods.  They are nine holes each, and the courses are about a mile apart.  When you finish the ninth at the Jewel, you hop on a horse-drawn shuttle for a ride up to the Woods for the second nine.  Ted was only going to play the Jewel.

I admit to knowing just about nothing about golf.  It is a sport, just like football, baseball, tennis, and volleyball.  And, as most of you know by now, if you have been reading this blog for any length of time at all, I am not much of a sports fan.  As my husband will tell you with great enthusiasm, to me they are all GAMES.  People should play games for fun.  Therefore, no one should get all worked up over them.   If you don’t get to watch a football game as it is being played, you can always find out the score the next day – or the next!  To me, it is no big deal!  To Ted, it is the difference between life as we know it and some alternate universe!

As we were driving the cart (excuse me, as Ted was driving the cart) out to the first tee, I called our son Jason in Atlanta. 

“Guess where we are!” I said. 

Jason, who LOVES golf, said, “Where – and don’t tell me the golf course!” 

“Yep,” I said.  “Just about to serve off the first tee!”

Jason said, “You serve in tennis, mom.”

“I knew that,” I said.

Jason told me that I would get a totally different view of the island from the golf course.  He and his wife Blair had played the Jewel last summer when they were here and had come home talking about what a great course it was.

So Ted played golf, and I snapped pictures (making occasional helpful comments on his game).  Here’s the game in pictures – with captions. 

Ted, about to tee off on the first hole of the Jewel.

 

The fairway for the first hole. The grass was wet, and the greens were slow (I heard Tiger Wood say that one time).

 

In a couple of weeks, this will be one of the most beautiful trees on the island. I must have taken 20 pictures of it last year from Cadotte Avenue.

 

Can you believe it? Swans on Mackinac Island! NOT! These are actually swan impostors, posted in strategic locations on the golf course to scare away the Canadian Geese. It seems geese hate swans!

 

A beautiful shot down the fairway, over the trees, and into the water (that's the photograph, not Ted's golf shot).

 

The steps led to the teebox on this hole.

 

This was just beautiful. At first I was concerned because it was cloudy, but the clouds filtered the light so the colors were perfect. I think bright sunshine would have bleached out all the lush greens.

 

I think it was here that I asked Ted if this was a Par 10 hole.

 

What can I say except - Wow!

 

No comment.

 

You can see the top of Turkey Hill through the trees here. If you look closely, you can see a couple turning the corner from the Governor's Summer Residence, starting down the hill toward town.

 

The highest point of the Jewel. There is a bench sitting under these trees, and all I wanted to do was sit there and just look out.

 

Another view from that hill.

 

A water hazard, with the Grand in the background.

 

On one of the last holes, we could look through the trees out over the roofs of town to the water.

 

How Ted finds all the balls in the odd places he hits them is beyond me. He told me several times that I am supposed to be watching where the ball goes when he hits it. I told him I do watch where it is supposed to go - but it never goes there. He didn't comment. Probably a good thing.

 

We were near Cadotte Avenue on the next to last hole. Carriages and taxis were going by - it was very distracting for Ted, especially when I would wave to everyone.

 

Me, in the golfcart.

 

Ted, sinking a beautiful putt on the 9th hole.

I had a wonderful time “playing golf” with Ted this morning.  He sweetly said he had really enjoyed having me along, so  I asked him when we could do it again.   I feel sure I just misunderstood him, but I could have sworn the words “pigs” and “fly” were in his answer.

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