The First Tee

Michael Cain says:

All of these “first tee” cartoons remind me of the one summer in college where I made my beer money playing golf on Wednesday afternoons. I knew the starter, I was polite and well spoken, so he used me to fill out a foursome of doctors or dentists who were short one player. In addition to complaining about how long it had been since they played, or how stiff they were that day, they always made these weird exotic bets, and would ask me if I wanted to be in on it. Me, in worn shorts, ratty old golf shoes, with beat-up clubs, would allow that it was a bit rich for a poor college student. They usually gave me a good deal.

The first hole was a fairly sharp dogleg left, with the turn close enough to tempt people to cut the corner. The landing zone for that wasn’t very deep, though, and if you missed you were in sparse but knee-high grass. I always let the doctors or dentists hit first, and it wasn’t unusual for all three of them to be in the ugly stuff. I had played the hole enough times, and had always hit a half-bucket of balls to get loose earlier, and would drop my tee shot exactly where they had been trying for. It got me a wide variety of looks.Report