So we arrive a half-hour early for our 7:30 a.m. tee time (yeah, that's me above).
It's a cool Southwest Florida morning, the breeze a little more biting than usual.
No worries, though. It's a nice forecast and we're looking forward to a morning of crisp tee shots, curious egrets and quiet conversation.
As a twosome, there's a good chance one or two others will join us. Sure enough, we hook up with two singles — Jamie and Dave.
Dave, as it turns out, is one of the club's starters. He's off-duty this morning, but needs to check in at noon. Nice guy, Dave, but we realize what this means.
When you're playing with a club employee, someone whose job is to keep things moving and the fairways, bunkers and greens pristine, there's pressure.
Yes, we replaced every divot. We fixed ball marks on the green. We removed our broken tees from the tee box.
And, yes, we made sure our pace of play was ahead of schedule.
And even though Dave offered us a breakfast beer at 9:30 and another at 11 (we declined both times), we knew playing with the starter was serious business.
Tee time with Dave. It's always something.
And you should see how well we raked those bunkers.
Enjoy the golf, Dan!
Posted by: Kevin | December 29, 2011 at 10:02 AM