View from the first tee at Shuksan Golf Course near Bellingham, Washington[/caption] I've spent a good portion of my adulthood trying to figure out why I continue to think golf is worth the time and effort I put into it. For starters, everything about it is backwards. You hit down to make the ball go up; you swing easy to make the ball go farther. In darts and bowling—or even when tossing a ball to your kid—you look at the target; with putter in hand, you look at the ball instead of the hole. What's up with that? Nothing, I repeat n-o-t-h-i-n-g about the game makes sense. One redeeming quality about the sport that pertains to this time of year is that when it's cloudy—especially if there's even a hint of rain in the forecast—no one ventures out. So fall and winter is when I like to play the most! I can play a great course like Shuksan and have it pretty much to myself; get in a round in a little over 3 hours and maybe even add a little Kahlua to my coffee to warm up after the round. There just aren't too many better ways to spend a day... especially when the wife is bugging me to rake leaves or some such nonsense. The moral (or immoral) of this story? Regardless of how much golf sucks, it's way better than raking leaves. What the heck, I'd read more of Marcus' golf articles. Take me there.
