Hello, Friends...

Well hello there.  Its the GoCM here and I'm the second in the royal "we" Power Fade has been bringing to this here site.  You may know me from previous endeavors in the blogosphere but now it is time to talk about the great game of golf and just how bad I am at this particular sport.  

Like 'Fade, I'm horrible.

I started playing golf with my Old Man about 18 years ago, watching him hit drive after drive  right down the middle into the rough at a few select resort courses in South Carolina and it has been a roller coaster of a golf career ever since.  There have been summers where I have spent months dropping in the right rough after my tee shot OB and, more likely, kind of like this summer, instances of pure brilliance (for me, anyway) off the tee followed by the 25 yard duff into the rough on my next shot, dooming myself to bogey or, in almost every case, worse.

There have been times when I have putted like Leonard at the Country Club in 1999, and times when I have played like Norman at Augusta in 1996.  Drove the ball as accurately as Olin Browne yet continued to make bogey after double after triple.  And let us not forget the myriad number of chip-chip-putt-putt 7's I've putt on a scorecard in my life.  Shit, at this point, I'm thankful I'm not carding a fucking snowman or worse (don't bother asking me about the 10th at a local tract called Thorn Apple here in CBus one afternoon...  

But the single constant has been my ability to continually spend my hard earned Benjamins on a game at which I honestly don't think I can get better.  Sure, there has been progress.  While 'Fade was on the golf team so many years ago, I was refining my short game and starting to score, albeit playing the most forgiving variety of bogey golf every envisioned by man, golfer or otherwise.

And that's what I love about golf.  

I'll drop $40-$100/week on the local goat paths around Greater Columbus and I will continually do so week after week because I'm convinced that, one of these days, I'll break 90 or even 80 in my pursuit to get my limited amount of money's worth each weekend.  I'll eventually run a few birdies together.  Maybe even grab an eagle.  Sure, I'm probably kidding myself, but its nice to know I'm doing so for at least a miniscule reason.

So what can I offer the duffer who checks in here from time to time?

Support.  For every bad shot you've hit after pounding a drive down the middle, I've hit 10.  For every fairway metal that you've duffed down the left rough from 240 out on a par 4, I've done the same 10 times over.  And for every time you've tip-toed into a bunker hoping against hope that you wouldn't spend more than one shot getting out of that particular devil, I guarantee you I've played 2-to-1 more shots from that insufferable bitch-goddess that is the bunker.  We can all relate here so enjoy the insight because I'll bet you've been there, too.  Just not as much as I have.

So stay tuned for the stories, analysis, reviews and general insights on this game that we all love, despite the fact that we all suck something awful at it.  It's gonna be a wild ride.

A Little Bit of History

First of all, let me make it very very clear that I am not a golfing novice. I wish I could say that we are two guys that, one day in our mid-20s, we both decided to take up the game of golf and are chronicling our progress on our quest to become legitimate golfers.

No.

In fact, we are very seasoned failures. We have both been golfing since were were young'ns. Hell, I was even on the prestigious Jones Middle School golf team as a 14-year-old. Back then, I could hit my driver about 225 yards, had moderate success with my irons, and a pretty lack-luster short game. Now, I can hit my driver about 225 yards, have moderate success with my irons, and have an extremely lack-luster short game. In other words, I have improved approximately 0% from my 10th round to my 100th round.

That's the first of many depressing realizations I've made about this fabulously masochistic game: if you are a fan of the old sports addage "practice makes perfect," you are tragically mistaken. If practice makes perfect, then I should be at least on the road to mediocrity. Instead, I'm a flatline. I'm the Cincinnati Reds of golf: a below-average player with no foreseeable improvement ahead. There's no question I'm doing something [probably many things] wrong. But the point is, no amount of practice could reverse the 10+ years of terrible golf I play.

But that doesn't mean I'll stop playing. Golf is funny that way: no matter how bad a golfer is, he will always come crawling back with his tail between his legs.

Only to be kicked around again.

Welcome!

Hey there. Welcome to "This Game Ain't Easy," a blog dedicated to the trials and tribulations of horrendous golfers nationwide. This blog will document and deprecate the endeavors of two Midwestern hackers on their (seemingly futile) effort to become respectable golfers. You will find course reviews, golf reflections, ad-hoc ranting, and general tomfoolery. We will document our fruitless journey if for no other reason than to laugh at it when we get really really really good at this horrid sport; but until then, prepare for bitter, sardonic, cynical drivel as we turn the "gentleman's game" into a laughtingstock.

Enjoy!