Adam Oster, Novelist

Although I grew up playing an awful lot of putt-putt (or, mini golf for those of you who don’t know the right thing to call it), I had never, in my life, played an actual round of golf.

Until last year.

It’s not for a lack of interest, it’s just that my interest was so low that it would have required a direct invite from someone who would do all the work for me to actually get there.

Or, I guess, a global pandemic.

Nearly two years ago, my family and I moved back to the city of Eau Claire. And we happened to move right across the street from a golf course. And for the past two years, every fair-weathered morning, I’ve watched people trek across the manicured lawn, looking like they were having the most pleasant time. And Wednesday evenings there is a men’s league which means the course is completely covered with dudes drinking while they hit their golf balls into my yard.

Golf always felt like something that could be fun or could be boring. And I honestly had no clue how I felt about the idea. And it always had this concept of wealth behind it. I figured I had to be rich to be able to do it. So, I never even took the time to see what it would cost.

That is, until golf was quite literally the only thing left to do outside of my house that wasn’t hiking. Thanks to the global pandemic, and the realization that outdoor sports like golf are safe, my family and I finally decided last year to check out this new golf thing the kids are always talking about.

And it turns out, I’m actually pretty good. So is at least one of my children.

Now, I’d love to say that this caused a severe change in my attitude toward golf and I now spend every Thursday in a golf cart knocking my ball about across the nine holes next door, but the reality is that I’ve actually only gone once more outside of that original outing, approximately a year after the original outing.

But now when I watch those golfers across the street, I find myself telling my family, “Hey, we should go golf again” and they all respond with a “Yeah, that sounds awesome” before we decide we’re going to the pool.

Maybe next year…