Keeping ‘the book’ for our golf group a task to be taken seriously

I drove more than 100 miles to play a round of golf Tuesday. That’s the approximate distance from McClellanville to Lockwood Folly in North Carolina.

I was playing, as I do every Tuesday, with the Grand Strand Swingers and was immediately greeted by a series of questions: Why are you here? How long did it take you? What time did you leave? Are you nuts?

All good questions, all deserving an answer.

Why am I here? Because I had foolishly, in a moment of temporary insanity, volunteered to keep “the book” for the month of April and had to pick up “the book” after our round at Lockwood Folly.

How long a drive? About two and a half hours and almost a tank of gas.

What time did I leave? Well, I left at 3 p.m. Monday. Then I stayed overnight at my daughter’s home in Little River. And, yes, that would make it a two-day trip to play one round of golf.

And that helps answer the final question: Yes, I’m a little nuts. But as the man said, in for a dime, in for a dollar.

Actually, I think several of my fellow golfers still can’t figure why I drive so far to play golf. After all, Charleston National is just 20 minutes away.

The nearest courses the Swingers play are in Litchfield, but those dates are few and far between.

Mostly we play North Myrtle Beach and beyond because that is where most players live and where I lived when I became a bona fide Swinger (no, it’s just golf.)

In my defense, I continued to play in the 10 years since moving to McClellanville for several reasons.

I know where I’m playing every Tuesday from January through December.

I know what time to show up and how many dollars to bring, no fuss, no muss. The rate is discounted on some of the best courses around. And I know most of the players.

Finally, it is, these days, the only golf I play since my back surgery two years ago. Not a health issue, just a lack of inertia.

So now I’m keeping “the book” for my fellow Swingers. That means I have to find 32 golfers to play next week, form them into teams of four, name the game we’re playing, record the scores and announce the winners.

It’s a real chore, see, but when I complained to my wife she consoled me with the thought that finally I had volunteered for something.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is called sarcasm. She is almost retired from her real job and is already a volunteer at the Sewee Environmental Education Center and the Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw.

No, no, I assured her. My volunteer work in keeping “the book” is important. I’m helping to keep a whole bunch of old golfers alive and kicking for another week, thank you. I am glad to do what I can to help.

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Keeping ‘the book’ for our golf group a task to be taken seriously."