Monday was the kind of day where you think to yourself, “This is why we live here.”
Blue sky, 80 degrees, nothing but bright green grass staring at you down the first fairway.
The
occasion was the ball coach coming to town for our annual match. Each
year during South Carolina’s spring break, Steve Spurrier comes back to
town and we hit the links.
I beat him two in a row a while back
which, of course, brought out the competitiveness in him. He waxed me
the next couple of times and Monday was a sure Spurrier win because of
how little I have been playing.
But I went to the course early and hit balls and worked on my game and thought I was ready.
I’ll tell you this — I don’t know if he’s lost anything as a play caller but he definitely hasn’t lost anything on the course.
He
shot 77 to my 79 and he was striping it all day. That 77 included a
double bogey on the last hole when a butterfly flew into hisbackswing on the tee.
And he putted miserably. That’s how good he was from tee to green.
Someone asked me as I walked off the 12th green if I was taking Spurrier’s money.
“Naw,” I said. “The rich get richer.”
More than anything, it was
fun just to spend four hours with Steve on the course. His team has had
one day of spring practice, the other being cancelled because of cold.
Again, this is why we live here. We talked a bit about Urban Meyer and
Bobby Bowden and assistant coaches. But mostly, we talked golf.
Interviews are for other days.
