Golf

Last Saturday, I attended the Play Golf America Day at Grande Dunes Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C. This is an initiative of the PGA of America to increase participation in the game of golf, and it’s all free.

Hundreds of people of all ages showed up for free lessons from PGA pros. They hit full shots on the driving range, they chipped and putted and hit bunker shots, all under the watchful eye of dozens of pros, staked out all over the immense practice facility at Grand Dunes.

Jeff Davis, PGA golf professional and teaching pro at Sea Trail Golf School, did something last week that few people ever do. He bowled a perfect 300 game at Little River Lanes in Little River, S.C.

Unlike golf, in which there is no finite perfect score, bowling does measure perfection. A 300 game means the bowler has hit 12 strikes in a row. There are 10 frames in bowling; each strike is worth 10, plus the pin fall from the next two balls. Keep going through the last frame, which has two bonus throws, and the perfect bowler will get a score of 300.

In the last few years, unhappy changes have occurred in golf courses in Brunswick County and the upper Grand Strand. Some courses have closed; others are in obvious financial straights with weed-filled courses and empty parking lots.

To add to the angst, several restaurants at golf facilities have closed or operate with limited hours.

There’s an old joke that gets to the point of this column. It goes like this:

A husband and wife are lying in bed reading. Suddenly, she sighs heavily and says, “Darling, if I died, would you get married again?”

“Maybe I would,” he says. “Our marriage has been a happy one, and I might consider trying again.”

A few moments later, his wife turns to him and says, “Darling? What about my jewelry? Would you give her my jewelry?”