A Good Walk Spoiled

Well, it was the first time out on the links today.....finally! However, it didn't exactly go as we had hoped for. The day started off great; the sun was shining, only a few white clouds above and not too long a wait between holes. The course wasn't in too bad a shape either considering the winter we had and the time of year it is. We were moving along nicely when suddenly, Mother Nature decided to let us know who was in charge.

In the first pic, we just lined up and asked the starter to take a shot of us. I didn't notice how we were lined up until I checked the pics at home. Had to laugh though. I'm the vertically challenged guy on the left. It didn't help that the string bean on the right kind of dwarfed us all. These are some of the guys I used to work with. On the far right is Doug (The String Bean), then Andy, (The Jester), and Kiel (The Meltdown King). All good guys and hard workers in their jobs.

As I was saying, things were going okay for awhile. We moved thru the front nine without any trauma or drama. Believe me, it gets worse as the season progresses. Competitive.........holy.......you don't want to know. Anyhow, we suddenly notice the winds begin to pick up and the flags were pretty well standing at attention. The skies, which started out blue began to turn various shades of grey. Still not too bad. We moved on.

We get to the back nine and start heading right into the wind. The grey in the clouds begins to get a little darker. Coming along in his cart is the course Marshall. He proceeds to warn us of an impending storm which he says is, "about an hour away". No worries, we think. On to the 12th hole where we all get off our drives. Scattered of course, but out there. Except now one of the guys says, "This isn't good. Where's the nearest Storm Shelter?" He barely got the words out of his mouth when we could hear the horn blowing from the clubhouse warning us to get the hell outta Dodge.

Before we saw the rain, we heard it. It was moving fast and sounded a lot like what you would expect a heard of Buffalo to sound. No time for prisoners either. Kiel and Doug booted to their left into the trees as the winds began to kick up sharply. I managed to get into the deep tree cover and had to momentarily take refuge behind a tree to protect myself from the wind. When I looked back to see what was keeping Andy, all I could see was the red of his umbrella fighting the wind. Enough of this, I thought and quickly made my way to the shelter and not a moment too soon as the clouds really let loose their fury.

Minutes passed before the lost lamb made his way into the clearing heading to the shelter. The picture is self explanatory. Well, we waited as long as we could thinking this would be just a passing storm and we could get out and finish. Didn't happen. We did manage to make it back to the clubhouse without any further issues and were given a raincheck. Not too shabby. At least we got to play a little today, had some fun and had a few laughs.