Tag: golf

Time for a Life Rethink I think.

As I sit here listening to my wife laughing and talking at a garage sale next door selling crap we just don’t need at our age or we have grown out of the habit or been outdated I do reflect on why I am here this morning and not at my beloved golf course as I have done in various tracks like Rosewood’s and Laidley every Saturday morning for about 30 years.

Yep off to golf, home and review the day, it’s ups and downs my performance and others, what to improve and what to do to improve. All in a bid to lower my handicap and give me some sense of pride in my ability to compete at the highest level I can.

Today I am asking that question about weather I have outdated the lifestyle of golf and all its glory and if golf now should be a pastime instead of the lifestyle it has been for decades.

I look at myself as a sportsman. A fair and honest sportsman. A person who wants to perform at the game highest level on my ability, a person who played off single figures for a short time but mainly hung around 10-13 for decades and shook cages in both B and A grades.

Now as I age, 69 this year and a bit of a lung issue, I find myself drifting out and not enjoying the fact that age and health are slowing me down. I don’t enjoy coming home shagged for two days. I don’t enjoy not performing and knowing I can do better but ….. I have challenged myself with equipment that probably does not suit my age group but I love the personal challenge fo dealing with something tough on the competition field and winning in some way even if it’s only self esteem.

I cannot except the fact it’s fun to have more shots on holes than anyone else. It’s not fun to underperform and be rewarded for it by letting your handicap slide out. That’s not how I play now or ever.

Old mans game and old mans thinking is not what I enjoy and I know the game caters for the majority of people at all levels, it’s my standards, my personal standards I respect more.

Maybe that attitude has been in my blood since I first started playing sport in football competitions back at 10 years old and have carried that in my playing and coaching career, later my trade and business career and now my ageing career.

I guess I’m looking for a new challenge. I think.. I love sport, I love the people who play sport, I love my fellow club members and their company but with time on this place getting shorter by the day I feel it’s time for rethink for what I can challenge myself to.

I have considered re entering the Football Coaching field as a advisory, a caddy for some youngster, a manager for a sportsperson, just to name a few and as you are aware I love writing and politics, which I might add gets me into a bit of strife at the club some times but is talked under hands when I leave.

We have bought a new Subaru Forrester Sport, the most challenging vehicle I have ever driven, and that’s saying a bit as I have driven heavy vehicles, 4x4s, buses and some sporty Mercedes Benz, all with different personalities but this one is special. I reminds you you are the driver and your expected habits compared to your actual habits.

It will upset those who know it all but embarrassing them might just save their life if they choose to take notice. It’s all about choice and ego I suppose.

Any way this is not solving my issues but I am enjoying the off-road trips and visiting places where wildlife is a little more natural. Both of us enjoy that freedom of just stop and listening to the silence and song of nature, and change from living on a main road drag trip at times.

Anyway I’ll still keep playing golf and with this drought going on that too is a pain as tee up takes another level of skill away from my toolkit and I get no jollies from teeing up driver on fairways at all. It’s embarrassing to the integrity of the golf course and inflates faulted egos.

In my football career which extended in semi pro coaching , when you beat a player and he has time to get up and bite your legs it time to consider retiring, you’ve proved you point but the game is catching you up and you will be only remembered by your last game… and I don’t want to be remembered as a old man who played who manipulated a system.

It’s a pastime now nothing more and let the battle for honour boards begin.. without me.

Grumpy old fart aren’t I? And proud of it too. 🖕🖕🖕🖕

PS Hope the garage sale is going well, if not she will be as pissed Ruby the dog is looking over the fence at them….

Queen Cow Culture inside the LPGA alive and well. 

When women’s sports are slowly but surely making way in the world of testosterone and stubble beards who on earth the would want to draw attention to themselves and try and regulate the way athletes present themselves on a golf course?The LPGA would. What were they thinking? 

Firstly who complained about it for a start? 

It wasn’t the viewing public Or the people who pay the entry Or the people who buy the merchandise Or support the sponsors that’s for sure. 

Taking them out it, the life blood of the industry, it could only have been that Fashion Police, who I might add has its operatives in every golf club that has ever existed. 

Made up mainly elder elitist gentry, mostly self appointed, ensuring all standards according to them are kept to what it was when they were alive,and young, when they too were beaten around the head by the same police squad. 

When golf clubs all over the world are trying to reinvent themselves to attract youth and their futures this band to cronies decide turn out of the time tunnel and haven’t realised this is 2017 not 1917.

This culture unfortunately is really a power game that exists amongst many women’s sports I have found and sadly based on keeping the youth in their place physically and mentally, and then the same people concede the youth don’t stay!! 

I wonder why? 

And by the way it’s not only youth that gets ticked off, older new players have to learn their place too in this toxic atmosphere. Discovering the Queen Cow and who is who’s faction and who claims you first. 

No it hasn’t changed much and nor will it endless we realise that limited 3 year terms then resignation then a pre designated holiday away from officialdom should apply as power bases become too entrenched. 

Anyway as a old Coach of women’s football all I can say is their dedication to the technique, fitness, and personal discipline far out classed the stubble bearded show ponies and that observation still exists in all women’s sport I watch today. 

Keep it up girls… Your looking great. 

The Back Nine.

Take the time and enjoy the story from a caretaker at Lake Dyer and a client.

Two of my favourite customers whom can’t visit anymore, because they aren’t physically able to tow their caravan any more sent this. It is fantastic advice!! 
THE BACK NINE HOLES
 I FIRST STARTED READING THIS EMAIL & WAS READING FAST UNTIL I REACHED THE THIRD SENTENCE. I STOPPED AND STARTED OVER READING SLOWER AND THINKING ABOUT EVERY WORD. THIS EMAIL IS VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING. MAKES YOU STOP AND THINK. READ SLOWLY! 
 AND THEN IT IS WINTER 
 You know … time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years. It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate. Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went. I know that I lived them all. I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams. 
 

But, here it is… the back nine of my life and it catches me by surprise…How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my youth go? 
I remember well seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that I was only on the first hole and the back nine was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like. 
 But, here it is…my friends are retired and getting grey…they move slower and I see an older person now. Some are in better and some worse shape than me…but, I see the great change…Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant…but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we’d become. 
 

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day! And taking a nap is not a treat anymore… it’s mandatory! Cause if I don’t on my own free will… I just fall asleep where I sit! 
 And so…now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did!! But, at least I know, that though I’m on the back nine, and I’m not sure how long it will last…this I know, that when it’s over on this earth…it’s over. A new adventure will begin! Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn’t done…things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I’m happy to have done. It’s all in a lifetime. 
 

So, if you’re not on the back nine yet…let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly! Don’t put things off too long!! Life goes by quickly. So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether you’re on the back nine or not! 
You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life…so, live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember…and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past!! 
 

“Life” is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after. Make it a fantastic one. LIVE IT WELL! ENJOY TODAY! DO SOMETHING FUN! BE HAPPY ! HAVE A GREAT DAY Remember “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. LIVE HAPPY IN 2015! 
 LASTLY, CONSIDER THIS:

~Your kids are becoming you……but your grandchildren are perfect!

~Going out is good.. Coming home is better!

~You forget names…. But it’s OK because some people forgot they even knew you!!!

~You realize you’re never going to be really good at anything like golf.

~The things you used to care to do, you aren’t as interested in anymore, but you really do care that you aren’t as interested.

~You sleep better on a lounge chair with the TV ‘ON’ than in bed. It’s called “pre-sleep”.

~You miss the days when everything worked with just an “ON” and “OFF” switch..

~You tend to use more 4 letter words … “what?”…”when?”… ???

~You notice everything they sell in stores is “sleeveless”?!!!

~What used to be freckles are now liver spots.

~Everybody whispers.

~You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet…. 2 of which you will never wear. 
 ~~~But Old is good in some things: Old Songs, Old movies, and best of all, OLD FRIENDS!! 
Stay well, “OLD FRIEND!” Send this on to other “Old Friends!” and let them laugh in AGREEMENT!!! It’s Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have Lived. 
TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU’VE EVER BEEN, YET THE YOUNGEST YOU’LL EVER BE, SO ENJOY THIS DAY WHILE IT LASTS.

Old Age is Great… 

You know what. I’m stuffed.After 2 days of golf last week, a day going to Mothers 86th, a day down just vegging out now today with a little shower this morning thought the atmosphere might improve. 

It hasn’t.. Lungs are still heavy..

This asbestosis shits me off no end, but it’s not going to beat me..

Battling tiredness and breathlessness daily takes it toll but I will survive. I have jobs to do on my house and that will get done. That’s what drives me and even though some days it’s sit down and rest,no choice, I will win….

What really gets me is the mind. It wants to go and the body says piss off.. And I hate starting something and not finishing it but I have learnt listening to your body helps as the recovery level takes much longer if you don’t.

Today the lungs say air better than yesterday, the body is responding, be it slowly, the mind says lest go you pair of fuck wits and get these jobs done. 

Experience says let’s see how the morning pans out… 

Anyway mother called and she no longer has a clot, or pneumonia. 

Yep, that was the diagnosis after the party, a night in hospital and both were dismissed.. 

Some times a little knowledge causes a trauma, and worst case scenarios fester. That’s why my doctor dismissed a colenoscomy as a reaction rarely needed and trauma causing at my age. Every 5 years max. Good decision I feel…. 

Yes old age is great, bits falling off and body slowly closing down, that’s nature, so it’s here for a good time not a long time. 

That’s why my golf is so important. Good friends and comradeship, playing in a buggy on flat courses, keeps me younger, playing in company of youth keeps me younger, listening to youth and keeping abreast of their technology keeps me younger.. Staying competitive via handicap keeps me younger. 

Yes recovery time is required but it’s worth every cent… And having a wife that understands sport, played sport, and still follows more sport than I do, knows that sport has never left us from the day we met at the football club where we both were playing back in about 1964. 

Anyway after watching Australia qualify for the 2015 World Cup Rugby Final against the All Blacks we are really looking forward to getting up at midnight On Monday morning for the final.. 

I am split as I love both teams, and as I have blood in both camps apparently I’ll enjoy the spectacle…. 

TBC.  

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑