This morning while driving to the golf club to play another round of 18 holes Stroke competition today, I thought about all the things I love about playing this game. It’s fast becoming my new learning obsession where I’m making time to improve my skill and lower the handicap. I have a long way to go but I figure that as long as I’m enjoying it, it’s beneficial for my mental health and well-being too. Plus, it gets me to walk and be out in the fresh air.

Here are some things that I love:

• Playing first thing Monday morning when the rest of the world happens to be at work
• Being the first to arrive in the early crisp morning
• People know my name – you’re greeted by everyone with your first name so I feel like I belong somewhere
• Warming my hands and face at the fire pit
• Chatting with the Scottish green keeper wgo lights said fire pits
• Practising at the nets
• The golf pro Friday clinics that always end up at the bar afterwards
• Driving off the first hole
• Sinking the first putt on the first hole
• Watching the sun rise on the second hole
• Not losing any golf balls throughout the game
• Not wiping the 10th hole
• Getting out of bunkers on the first go
• Magpies help me locate my golf ball because they walk to it
• Cockatoos screeching above
• The rosellas in the trees near the 13th
• Walking along Mayfield Estate Road and imagining the old mansion long since demolished in 2002 being there
• Hoping the 19th hole (a short par 3) is in play because it’s fun
• Getting a par on the 17th
• Seeing a fox
• The endorphins of finishing 18 and being outside in the fresh air
• 30+ points on each round (aim)
• Sinking the last putt to finish the game on 18th
• Doing our final score check and submission on the MiScore app
• Air pressure cleaning of my buggy and shoes. I love that air pressure cleaner!
• Looking forward to going to the club house with the ladies
• Drinking a cappuccino (they do the BEST coffees) and eating lunch at the end of the game
• Laughing with the ladies comparing our scores and chatting about how our game went that day.
• A four hour game feels like four minutes (well not exactly but it doesn’t feel like four hours)
• During the entire game absolutely nothing else enters my mind except how I’m playing. I’m in some kind of flow/trance state
• I love my clubs, driver, irons (hybrids and wood not so much)