As I watched Dustin Johnson putt at Chambers Bay for a chance to send the 2015 U.S. Open to a playoff, I thought what the rest of America did:
Heck, I could make that!
A month and a half later I proved without a doubt that no, I could not. And it wasn’t even close.
After spending a weekend in June fascinated with golf, I finally — at age 26 — made it to the golf course for the first time.
I went to a familiar location for my first golfing endeavor. As a teenager, I lived on 72nd Street, right behind the Cedarcrest Golf Course in Marysville. With the course right behind us, every once in awhile a stray ball would find its way into our backyard.
Well, last Monday night I gave several balls back to Cedarcrest Golf Course.
Unsure how it was going to go, but expecting the worst, I talked with Cedarcrest Golf Pro Shane Day the week before.
Day, who started golfing when he was 11, said that rounds have been up this summer, likely due to the sunny weather in the Pacific Northwest.
Also, perhaps, a little bit because of the U.S. Open.
“It’s hard to gauge that just because of the amazing weather we’ve been having,” said Day, who went to the first day of the U.S. Open. “I would say around the time of the Open we had a lot of golfers that weren’t interested in golf whatsoever learning about fescue and the green. It became more of a deal. … It definitely brought golfers to the area. It’s probably the biggest sporting event we’ve ever held, in my opinion, in the Seattle area.
“I thought the experience itself, just because it’s such a major event, was pretty amazing,” Day continued. “To have the top players in the world playing in our backyard was indescribable.”
The top players were not rolling up for a 6:30 p.m. tee time last Monday. A few friends and I played the course including Steve Willits who, at 42, was also playing his first round ever.
“Rough” doesn’t begin to describe our first few shots.
“Struggle,” said Brian Hoorn, a friend who’s been playing golf since before I was born.
“Challenging. Hard-to-watch,” added Herald Features Editor Aaron Swaney, whose first job was cleaning golf carts at Cedarcrest Golf Course when he was 16.
I’m happy to say I didn’t crash the golf cart.
But that’s about where my success ended.
It became apparent early on in the evening that driving the ball was not where I was going to excel. Chipping also was not my strong suit. And I knew I wasn’t a stellar putter after just four putts — all of which came on the first hole.
Day and my fellow golfers had advised me that, for beginning golfers at least, a “smooth tempo is more beneficial than crushing the ball.”
Well, I tried it both ways and neither was effective.
In my uneducated opinion, having water on the course just seems mean. I’ll admit that it looks beautiful but it isn’t as nice to have to try to golf over.
Hole No. 8 featured a splash down for all but one person in our foursome. I struggled through the hole in eight shots, a few less than Willits who made his feelings known as we hopped in our golf cart and headed to No. 9.
“Well, that hole sucked.”
That’s not a reflection on the course, which is beautiful.
Even with its water.
Hoorn nicknamed Willits “One-Club Willits” because of his connection to his 3-wood, which he used on about 87 percent of his shots, including a short pitch on one hole.
Still, Willits’ final score was lower than mine. I finished dead last in the group, which was the final one on the course Monday evening. We wrapped things up at 9:08 p.m., 38 minutes after sunset which made finding our final few shots quite difficult.
Swaney won the day, bolstered by a birdie on No. 6. I didn’t have to worry about anything so impressive. For me, par was a white whale.
When I tell people I shot a 72 my first time golfing they are initially impressed, until I point out it was for nine holes and not 18.
But I feel like I got the golfing experience. I got to drive around in a golf cart, talk with my friends, embarrass myself profusely and yell “fore!”
In fact, I was so excited to yell “fore” that when the time came to holler, just four holes in, I panicked.
“Heads up!” I yelled as my shot sailed in the opposite direction I intended for it to travel.
“You’re supposed to yell, ‘Fore!’” Hoorn responded.
“FOOOOOORE!” I bellowed.
God knows where that ball ended up. I was just thankful I didn’t hit anybody.
Another thing I like about golf, and why I enjoyed playing sports like baseball and basketball growing up, is the camaraderie. I can’t repeat a lot of what was said on the golf course because it’s not exactly newspaper-friendly, but the four of us had some serious talks, sprinkled in with a lot of laughs.
I don’t know what number was higher: the total yards we played or the number of “that’s what she said” jokes we made. I’ve never seen a group of two men in their 40s, one in his 30s and one in his late 20s giggle so much in a three-hour span in my life.
While we were standing around laughing — usually at one of my shots — I thought about something else Day had told me.
“Don’t take it too serious. The game is supposed to be fun,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be a stress on your life, although a lot of golfers stress about it.”
I’ve decided that when playing a game that requires great skill for the first time it’s important to find the little victories. For instance, I only lost four of the 12 golf balls I purchased. So I still have 67 percent of the golf balls I started with.
Similarly, we chose a late tee time on a Monday specifically so we wouldn’t hold other, more experienced golfers up. We only got passed by one group and I hit a ball onto a hole they were playing just twice.
It could have been a lot worse.
I didn’t meet any fellow first-time golfers on the course but I did run into Jackson High School football coach Joel Vincent practicing before we set out.
Vincent said a desire to keep playing golf is infectious.
He was right.
Sadly, his chipping skills were less contagious.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
