Golf

This past week, Gene and I made our 19th pilgrimage to the tiny island of Bermuda and, as usual, it was perfect.

Bermuda is in the Atlantic Ocean, directly east of North Carolina. The climate is much like ours, but a bit more temperate because the Gulf Stream runs right by it, bringing warm ocean temperatures to its shores.

I have not shopped for myself for 11 months, 4 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes.

My no-shopping adventure began last Jan. 2, when I decided to really clean out my clothes closet.

Let me explain. When Gene and I built our retirement home here on the Carolina coast, I wanted a big walk-in closet. In our last home, my clothes were stuffed into a small wall closet with heavy sliding doors that often fell off the track. I dreamed of a big closet the same way golfers yearn for a single-digit handicap or a hole-in-one.

We’re all in a budget crunch right now and looking to save pennies whenever we can. The holiday season is upon us with gifts to buy, special meals to prepare and travel costs.

When family and friends arrive for the holidays or a winter vacation in the mid-South, we want to take them out to play golf. Maybe a grandson just got a new set of clubs for Christmas and now wants to try them out. Perhaps a daughter-in-law is taking golf lessons. Maybe you have a long-standing golf bet with your older brother from Minnesota.

Amid depressing economic news, The Legends Golf Tour is planning to come to Brunswick County Sept. 28-30. The Legends Tour is the senior tour of the LPGA.

Letters of intent have been signed and many people are working hard to make it happen. The site will be Tiger’s Eye at Ocean Ridge Plantation. The beneficiary will be North Carolina Special Olympics.

Legends Tour players include Amy Alcott, Sally Little, Beth Daniel, Rosie Jones, Jan Stephenson and Nancy Lopez. In short, these are the LPGA golfers fans followed and cheered for and who have since turned 45.