Greetings Golfers,

A week ago I was playing golf in South Carolina – now I’m looking out the Clubhouse window at A LOT of snow.

However, I’m glad to be back home … seriously. I love getting ready for the golf season. I’m a Golf Professional – not a Professional Golfer. I love to play golf … but I especially love to share the game of golf.

The guys I played with last week are retired PGA Pros from New England. Of the 7 guys – one is named Jim – one is named Butch – and the other 5 are Mikes. They’re all characters … Irish guys … funny … tough … and still good players. One guy played in a US Open and a Senior US Open … and another guy won the New Hampshire Open. Nobody can hit it anywhere … and in SC we get no roll.

The golf course we play is brutal … and especially bad in January and February when the grass is dormant. The greens are unputtable – though the US Open guy somehow makes everything … pretty obvious why he had so much success as a player.

When they built the course 20 years ago, the idea was to attract Northern PGA Pros to buy a house in the neighborhood, and then winter or retire there. Didn’t work out so well. The course is 7,200 yds from the back with narrow tree-lined fairways and water hazards everywhere. They thought PGA Golf Professionals were Professional Golfers … and would want that type of challenge. Wrong. Of course we don’t play off the back tees … but it’s still really difficult … and the conditions sure don’t help. But is it fun? Yeah – it’s the highlight of my week. Every Monday at 1pm we tee it up … cold or hot … calm or windy … dry or rainy … the game is on.

As they say … golf is a game of a lifetime. Even if your name isn’t Mike.

Cheers,

Tom Abts

GM and Head Golf Professional

tabts@deerrungolf.com