Birdies are safe with club in hand

Happy Friday! Let’s tee it up.
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Decided to pull the golf clubs out of mothballs Thursday for a 9-hole run at Zenwoods Golf Club, formerly known as Point O’Woods.

I haven’t played in quite some time, and wouldn’t be playing Thursday if not for the inaugural Old Schoolhouse Community Center golf tournament at Zenwoods on Nov. 8.

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As a trustee of Club Recovery of Citrus County, which oversees the community center, I can’t sit out a fundraiser golf tournament. I also can’t show up on the day of the tournament after not swinging a golf club in four years.

I’ve long enjoyed golf and went through a time when I played quite regularly. My old friend Gordon and I worked together on Saturdays at the Chronicle. Our journalistic motto was “All the news that’s fit to print by 4:30 so we can get in 18 at Twisted Oaks before dark.”

I was never any good at it. If I break 100, that’s a miracle outing.

It’s a shame seeing golf courses close down. I played Lakeside. I played Pine Ridge. Like everything else, the up-and-coming generation doesn’t have the same interests we do, including a leisurely round of golf.

My favorite golf story doesn’t involve me.

It was St. Patrick’s Day, and one of the local golf courses had a Shamrock tournament. I was working that Saturday when someone called the newsroom to say that four golfers had rescued a kid from drowning.

This was in the very early days of cell phones. Only the busiest people carried them. I got the names of the golfers — four guys well known in the community — and one had his cell phone with him on the golf course.

The story was this: They were in the tournament and heard someone screaming from a house along the fairway. They raced over and discovered a young boy face down in the family pool. All four sprang into action. I don’t recall the details, but my story about their heroics in saving that boy’s life led the Sunday newspaper.

As for my own golf exploits, nothing to write home about there. Never came close to an ace. Never tossed my clubs in the lake. I’ve left many a 9-iron on a fairway, realizing several holes later that the bag is a club light.

On Thursday, I found a ball near the 7th green. Lost it on the 8th fairway. That’s how it is with found golf balls. They’re not meant for keeping.

And it’s not like my iron game is awful. Just last fall, I used my 4-iron to fling a snake from the house. I’m telling ya…a 4-iron works in ANY circumstance.

Zenwoods is a little different than most golf courses. The tees, greens, fringes, and sand traps are all artificial turf, so that takes some getting used to. I mean…no sand in the sand traps. I think it’ll be a fun tournament.

Click here for info on the Old Schoolhouse Community Center inaugural golf tournament.

— I’m cleaning out my T-shirt drawers. You read that right. Not one drawer. Two. Maybe three before the night’s out.

I’m a T-shirt guy. Been that way since junior high school. I wore Ohio State shirts during my high school days to antagonize my Michigan friends, and have had many come and go over the years.

When Just Wright Citrus started up, I made it a point to wear only T-shirts with Citrus County themes. Now, of course, I have JWC T-shirts. If we meet for a Cattle Dog chat, there’s a very good chance I’m showing up in a T-shirt.

Deb gave me a new T-shirt for my birthday. It sits on a chair. It can’t join the T-shirt brigade until one of its predecessors is shown the door, or at least a closet shelf.

Plus, and this might be a guy thing, many of these shirts have some sentimental connection. I have a Maroon 5 T-shirt from the night I took Erin to her first concert on her 18th birthday. It’s faded with holes. And it will not leave my possession, ever.

That’s it for this Friday. Golf and T-shirts. Some days are like that.

Have a spectacular weekend, friends.

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