Back on the golf course today for the first time for ages and ages. Good old Massey Park hasn’t changed much, there’s a bit more grass on some of the bare patches but that’s about it. My playing partner was Norman Arnott. His secret weapon was a square of aluminium foil taped to his leg, probably channeling some cosmic forces directly into his Chakra.
My secret weapon was the Apple Watch with a Golf app that told me the distance to the green from any point on the course.
This was a source of confusion at first. When I set up the app, it said the distance to the pin on the first hole was 2,489 metres. That’s a hell of a long hole, I thought. Then I realised that the hole was 2,489 metres from where I was sitting – at my desk at home. Damn these-new-fangled gadgets!
Knowing the distance to the green is a great help. Now I need an app that tells me how to hit the ball straight and avoid the trees.
We had a splendid game, hitting some fine shots. I got a birdie and a couple of pars and Norman also got a few pars. I had a few tee shots land on the green which is always encouraging. I don’t mind taking a few extra putts, I need the practice. (But five on one hole is probably enough).
The scores? Who’s counting! Talking about counting, the watch said we walked 11,979 steps, 9.6 kilometres and burned 522 active calories. (Coincidentally, that was the same total as the calories in the meat pies and sauce we ate half way round.)
This was the first outing of the year for my shorts, summer is on the way, thank goodness.
