The Pearl: 10 April 2015

It took me seventeen years to reach 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course. - Hank Aaron Golf can certainly be a humbling and frustrating game to play. While Hank Aaron's quote was an exaggeration, it can certainly feel like you've hit three thousand shots when you're having a bad day on the golf course. But never forget - your worst day golfing is better than your best day at work, even if your day job is playing baseball -- a sport in which batting .300, meaning one fails 70 percent of the time, is still considered a great success. Of course, a golfer's ability to break par would be severely diminished if the ball were moving. Both games require great skill to play well. … [Read more...]

The Pearl: 8 April 2015

It's good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling. - Mark Twain Occasionally a quote requires no further elaboration. This is one of those times. But because golf has provided a wealth of quotes worthy of remembering, I've managed to cobble together a few of the wittier observations about the sport. Twain also wrote that, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." Comedian Buddy Hackett didn't like golf very much, either. He said, "Golf is more fun than walking naked in a strange place, but not much." Former U. S. President Gerald Ford joked, "I know I am getting better at golf because I'm hitting fewer spectators." An excellent golfer, Hall of Fame baseball player Mickey Mantle said, "He who has the fastest golf cart never has a bad lie." In contrast, famed humorist Will Rogers said, "The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf." Al Boliska asked, "Have you ever noticed what golf spells backwards?" Humorous author Dave Barry wrote, "For me, the worst part about playing golf, by far, has always been hitting the ball." James Patrick Murray said, "Show me a man who is a good loser, and I'll show you a man playing golf with his boss." According to actor Jack Lemmon, "If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball." Actor Dick van Dyke added, "I found out that retirement means playing golf, or I don't know what the hell it means. To me, retirement means doing what you have fun doing." Former professional golfer Gary Player once said, "As we all know...golf is a puzzle … [Read more...]