Our friendly neighbourhood golf courses are getting ready for another season of g,o,l,f which stands for growing old and living fine, or whatever words you can attach to the letters that make any sense.  Golf is after all a four- letter word. I take comfort knowing there must be thousands of people who are worse golfers than I am but of course they don’t play golf.  Like most duffers I enjoy the fresh air (but not too windy), moderate exercise (I use a cart) and the camaraderie with my golf companions who are always reminding me to keep my head down.  It’s so I won’t see them laughing.  The number of strokes it takes to motivate that ball into the cup on the green isn’t important.  I have a terrific short game.  Unfortunately, it’s off the tee.  If I ever reached a par 5 in 2 the golf course would change that hole to a par 4.  If I hit the ball really good but it goes someplace really bad it’s still great….. OK, maybe a wee bit depressing, but it is exhilarating….. and maybe frustrating, and thrilling…..and ego-deflating.  All the above.   But what can you do?  I remind myself that bad shots only come in groups of 3.  The 4th bad shot is the beginning of the next 3.    I’ve never had an eagle but have had the thrill of a birdie on a par 3.  I’m very familiar with bogeys, double bogeys and triple bogeys.  4 over is a quadruple bogey.  5 over is a quintuple, 6 is a sextuple, 7 over is a throwuple, 8 over is a blowuple and 9 over par on a hole is an oshutuple.  Remember, golf is 90% mental and the other 10% is in your head. 

That’s Coffeetalk.  I’m Vic Dubois.