Golf carts

So, we pastor types usually get one day during the week off because Sunday is a working day for us. For the past year or so, I've been taking Thursdays off. I find that I'm better about actually taking the day off than I did when my day off was Friday. Anyway, yesterday, on my day off, I decided to go play golf. My golf game has really dropped off in the past few years and I'm determined to get back to at least bogey golf by the end of the year. Now, I'm a bit of a golf purist in that I walk and carry my clubs whenever possible. I really don't like using a golf cart. It throws off my rhythm somehow. I really love that time of walking in between shots. If I've hit a marvelous shot and hit the green or placed the ball in the middle of the fairway, I have time to admire my skill. More often, though, my ball is in the rough, or the sand trap by the green, or maybe even about to roll into a pond. In this situations, as I walk in between shots, I have time to shake it off, clear my mind, and decide how best to recover. I just really love walking and carrying my clubs. Well, yesterday, I got behind a group of three players (a threesome in golf parlance) who were sharing two carts. No matter what anyone tells me, I'm convinced that two people walking will play faster than two people sharing a cart. I stood and watched as these guys would drive to one side of the fairway for Duffer One to hit his shot and then drive to the other side of the fairway for Duffer Two to hit his shot. Then, sin of sins, they would drive up the middle of the fairway in their cart. Hello!! We have all of these dumb cart paths all over the place for my golf ball to ricochet off of. Why don't you use them? By the end of the round, I had to force myself not to watch the ill used carts ahead of me. Yeah, I really dislike golf carts. I'm now reminded of a time when I was playing a round of golf with my friend Jeff. We were walking and carrying our clubs and were playing fairly well. We were ahead of pace and actually had actually had to wait on the group ahead of us a couple of times. On the 8th hole, as I was preparing to chip on to the green, this bozo in the twosome behind us (both with their own cart), comes driving up to tell us to hurry up. I almost turned around the hit the ball right at his face. I should have told him to drive on ahead and tell them to hurry up, or better yet, I should have told him to get his lazy butt out of his cart and walk and carry his clubs and see if he could finish 18 holes without having a heart attack. But, instead, I simply pointed to the group ahead of us on the 9th hole who were just hitting their second shot and said, "Sure thing, buddy." There's a whole other blog post here about taking time to actually enjoy what you're doing instead of always being in a rush to finish, but I've rambled on long enough. Thank God for a beautiful day and being healthy enough to get out there and enjoy creation by chasing a little white ball.