Inky Horizons

Byron Nelson died yesterday.  He was a golfer, in case you didn't know.  A big man from Texas, gentle, calm, peaceful, he won eleven tournaments in a row in 1945.  No one, not even Tiger Woods, will ever break that record.  His swing was an absolute thing of beauty: strong, perfect, an arc of grace and crushing power.  In fact, his swing was so perfect,  a machine at the USGA headquarters was built to emulate Nelson's swing and it was called Iron Byron.

For those who love golf, like I do, this is a blow.  Nelson was one of the greats.   Self-effacing and quiet, he was completely unlike the prima donnas we have today.
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I worked past midnight last night and completed the first run-through of my story collection.  So far so good, and I'm still having fun remembering why and when I wrote a lot of these stories.  Still not sure what I'm going to do with the finished product, and don't really care.  But I like what I see so far, and think it has promise.

The Europeans have punked the Americans 18 1/2 to 9 1/2.  Youch.  But it's not unexpected.  The Europeans play a completely different game on their tour.  They travel together, they eat together, they stay in the same hotel, they practice together, they drink together.  They are always team oriented in everything they do.

Our prima donnas, on the other hand, fly in to a city on their private jets, stay cooped up in the presidential suite of some swanky hotel, practice alone, eat alone, play their tournament and then hop back on their jet and fly away...alone.

The Ryder Cup is a team-oriented tournament.  You must have a team if you expect to win.  And even if you go into the singles which are the Americans' strength, you still need a team mentality because you're not just playing against one other guy, you have to keep in mind you're playing against the other team.  The Americans haven't learned that lesson yet.

This wasn't a loss in golf.  It was a drubbing.  It was an embarrassing kick in the pants on the world stage.  Our golfers came up short, way short.  The Euros came up heroes.  Big heroes, and deservedly so.

Maybe the Americans can take a lesson from this humiliating defeat and use it to retool their thinking for 2008.  But, somehow, I kinda doubt that'll happen....

After the boys returned home from school we went out to The Refuge to get in a bit of golf practice.  I was curious how my foot was going to hold up ever since I broke it a month ago, but it did okay.  I mostly worked around the practice green, putting and working on my "Pelz" chips.  So far so good, even when I tried a couple of practice swings and pronated my right foot (the broken one) 90 degrees for my finish.

The boys had a good time playing the Wee Links, three mini-holes for children. They have a cute rule that adults must be accompanied by children on the Wee Links.  We have a month-by-month membership at The Refuge and I can watch the boys from the practice green or the driving range, so it's never a problem.  One of Patrick's little friends from his class was out there yesterday so all three boys had a great time.

After about an hour I leaned back on a green sward leading up to the practice green, looking out over the golf course that has been raised from a wetlands area.  I had forgotten how much I liked this place.  It's beautiful.  And there's a lot of wildlife out there, too.  I've seen geese, ducks, rabbits, turtles, frogs, otters, herons, racoons.  A great place for golf unlike the boring wide open swathes you so often see on municipal courses.

I'm planning on doing more work on the collection today and then I'll make a pot of Hungarian goulash for tonight.  Then I'll head over to the writing group on the other side of Jackson and see what's shaking there.