Played a chilling round of golf today with my OFC (Old Farts Club) golf buddies. For nearly 20 years now we have played 2-2 1/2 rounds per week from St. Patrick’s Day through Thanksgiving. They are 8-10 wonderful and dear friends whom I am completely grateful for. We share a love of the game but also of the companionship which surrounds it. Some days I keep expecting Will Smith as Bagger Vance to walk out of the cornfield along holes 2 and 3. At our local public course we are a bit of an institution or anachronism, I’m not sure which. Truly we are not great golfers but share much of the dignity and honor of the old game. There are no mulligans! With some frequency we have young college golfers who like to play with us just to take in the banter. We don’t just have good jokes, but we have long oratories of jokes by theme. I once counted three holes worth of nonstop “camel jokes”. We have a special 19th hole chair on the patio for the worst putter of the day, who also buys the beer! We pool our earnings and take spouses and friends to dinner once a year. It reminds me of what was so very good about a slower simpler world we seem rapidly leaving behind. We have found the elusive virtue of belonging. I can’t say enough good about these treasured friends other than l love them and hope we can play 20 more years together perhaps one day matching our age with our score.
The OFC
