As one can deduce from my lack of posts on this blog, I haven't been playing much golf. Even this past summer, I didn't play nearly as much as I normally do (chalk the lack of golf up to traveling, work, and parenting). More recently, I jammed a finger rather severely playing basketball, and I've sprained my left pinky finger about 5 times in the last two months playing volleyball, so the simple act of gripping a golf club has become painful (to the point of being impossible for about 3 weeks). I've been easing my way back in to golf by hitting balls on the range. It hasn't been pretty. I haven't played a round on a golf course in a couple of months now. Yet, as fate would have it, I've been invited to tag along with a buddy on a trip down to Bandon in the middle of January.
This is not how I envisioned my maiden voyage to Oregon golf's holyland. I imagined being in as close to tournament shape as I could be before forking over the big bucks to play those highly penal courses. Instead, I will be rusty and, even worse, not in golf shape. Being out of shape is my biggest fear. The last time I went a long stretch without golfing then teed it up, my left knee gave out on me by the 12th hole and my hips were just about frozen by the 15th. And that was just one round of golf. I'm signed up to play 18-36-18. I've decided that I'm not going to carry my clubs, and I'm doing what I can to at least get some cardio in a couple times a week. I'm guessing a giant bottle of ibuprofen will end up being my best friend.
In spite of all of my fears, I'm really excited to get down there and see what all the buzz is about. I haven't played true links golf since I played Chambers Bay the week before the US Am (according to the good folks at Google, that happened in 2010). In case you don't already know from my previous ramblings, I love links golf having grown up playing a shaggy old 9-hole seaside links course along a stretch of windswept white-sand beach in Hawai'i. I was playing well heading into the round at Chambers, and my links golf instincts were good enough to shoot an 80 in pretty tough conditions (the greens were slick & firm as concrete, and the wind was gusting throughout the round). From what I hear, breaking 90 the first time playing the courses at Bandon is an accomplishment. That said, I feel like I have a huge advantage of growing up playing in the wind. I'm just hoping we get some golfable weather. After all, I grew up playing with 20 mph gusts, not the 35+ mph stuff that you commonly find down in Bandon.
