GOLF

Our beautiful fall season is here which means it’s the best time of year to just play and here’s why.

The courses are in the years’ absolute best playing condition. Our grasses are mature and still have good color which provides both aesthetic quality and definition. Some trees and leaves are coloring up and the contrast provides for a quite beautiful setting.

The golf course, in my opinion, is one of man’s attempts to take what God created, the natural terrain and convert it into an outdoor, 4-6 mile trail with a recreational purpose. A stick propels a ball into a predetermined direction along a grassy undulated path and this trail can be traversed using motorized transportation or can be experienced afoot.

Amplifying God’s beauty with man’s modifications is the special tilt of the sun which inspires a clean feeling, cool and bright atmosphere only experienced a few weeks each year. The sound even seems to travel differently. Even if you don’t play, being around golf property is special.

“I just enjoy sitting on my back porch this time of year,” mentioned my aunt, Sammy Brown who lives on the first hole at Golden Hills. Football in the fall overwhelms the hearts of the public. This means golf courses are incredibly available on weekends. College consumes the Saturdays and NFL Sunday afternoons.

Speaking of college, I fell in love with golf during my first fall in college partially because of high course availability during football season.

So, I will be forever appreciative of football for this reason.

I could easily play 54 holes a day, and more play means faster skill competency development.

The lesson again this week is play golf more if you want to learn to play better. Speaking of good play and fall golf, the girls get it right. South Carolina conducts its girls golf season in the fall which is smart and right here locally and we have some of our country’s best young female golfers.

How about this? The Lexington Lady Wildcats won the Class 5A Lower State Championship by 20 shots last week at Columbia Country Club.

Molly Hardwick, a freshman, was medalist with a five-under-67. Isabella Rawl was second with 73 and Karlee Vardes was third with 74.

The WildCats are heavily favored to win a S.C. High School League record 13th state championship. Also advancing to the State Championship was River Bluff. The players representing the Gators will be Isabella McKenzie, Sydney Wilson, Alanna Harper, Lauren Oh and Marley Barefoot.

The Irmo-Chapin Recreation Commission Winter Tour registration is now open and this season will be its 27th. The theme is “Families having fun spending golf time together”. Dr. Morris Pickens consulted with Marie Dawkins, a Physical Educator, my wife, Valerie, Early Childhood educator and first grade teacher at the time, to build a “Parental Caddy Guide.” So, parents have the option of caddying for their players on the “Winter Tour” creating quite a unique “Team” dynamic influencing numerous families, for a number of years. For more info call 803-781-2063.