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If I Had It My Way

There is no right way to play golf, there are many. On countless levels — the swing, the group, the location, etc. — golf can be so different, but it is still be golf. That alone is half the attraction for a social guy like me.

Through my fascination with the sport, I’ve witnessed almost every avenue. This summer I golfed in Door County, Dane County, and Washington County, but also in Illinois and New Jersey. I played scrambles, best ball, stroke play matches and stopped counting my score a few times.

I golfed with friends, coworkers, roommates and people I met just days prior. My only wish is that I would have golfed with a girl at some point, but maybe that’s a struggle I should keep personal. Help me out, ladies.

And as I profile golfers in the Peninsula Pulse every few weeks, I see the question about their “fantasy foursome” and until now, never asked myself who and what would make up my own golf fantasy.

If I had it my way — in a more perfect world where I wasn’t on a student budget, managing a backpack full of syllabi, employed for 30-plus hours a week while my friends are doing the exact same — this is how I would do it.

In a perfect world, I would golf five days a week. That number seems just enough to (hopefully) get pretty good at the game but not so much that I can’t do anything else.

Each day of the week would present me with a different group of players. On Mondays I would golf with Grandpa Zak, the man who introduced me to the game and continues to ask how I’m playing, even if surgery has laid him up away from the course. We’d tee it up early at Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne, Wis. I would harvest more untapped golf knowledge and afterward we would sit at the bar with a pair of lemonades, the same way we spent many summer days when I was younger.

Tuesdays would be spent in the evening with an ultra-competitive 2-on-2 scramble with my best friends at The Orchards. Work would keep us from starting earlier and the disappearing sun would keep us scrambling until we pass the point of, hit it and guess where it went.

Golf on Thursdays would be in a foursome with my roommates, where I’m desperately fighting to best my good-golfer-roommate while my inadequacies keep me within range of the other not-so-good-golfer-roommates. The Legend at Bergamont, where I now work part-time, would serve as the landscape for our amusement.

Fridays would be fun. I would golf with a complete stranger on a completely new course. Each week with the aforementioned people would be great, but spending four hours with a new person on an unknown course would keep me begging to the golf gods for their mercy.

Finally, Sundays would be spent with my dad and brother, two teachers who, driven by competitive character, love to golf. Horseshoe Bay, where I spent many working hours of my life, would be the location. Sundays would fit their schedule and would boost my golfing ego. Troy and Ryan aren’t the greatest golfers on the course, but they respect my developing skills and treat me like a pro. I love that.

And then, every Monday, I’d tell Grandpa Zak all about my last week of golf.

So maybe golf in my fantasy world was less interesting to you? I can’t reciprocate that feeling. What would golf in your fantasy world be? I seriously want to know. Drop me an email to [email protected]. If I can assemble enough good ones, I’ll post them in the future.