A Birthday Round and The Streak Continues

It is always a happy day when I can play a round of golf on my birthday. With a November date in Michigan, there have been many years when snow was on the ground or in the air. Freezing rain also has been an obstacle.

Yesterday, temperatures were in the fifties and the sun out intermittently, so I played 27 at Washtenaw Golf Club. That added up to 22, 779 steps — more than ten miles of walking.

I was behind an end-of-the-season scramble at Washtenaw and there was no one behind me, so I played two balls in a personal game of “worst ball,” where you hit two and play the worst of the two. Worst Ball will definitely test one’s recovery and imagination skills.

It was glorious. I think there are few things as good for the soul as walking down a grassy fairway in crisp autumn air while surrounded by trees in all their glorious colors. Washtenaw is a pretty course all year round, but particularly so in the fall (see the banner at top for some peak “color”).

A round in November also extended “The Streak.” I have now played least one round of golf in Michigan each month for 129 straight months — well more than ten years. How long will the streak continue? I have no idea. It started accidentally — at one point I realized that I had not missed a month in ages and so I started to track it. After years of anxiously watching for breaks in the weather to get a round in during the winter, I think I’ve reached the point where I don’t care if it ends.

The streak is likely to end some year in February. December has typically been easy. January always seems to have a week where the snow melts and the sun heats up. February, on the other hand …

I recently saw a social post from a yokel in Florida laughing about how in northern states, we can only play golf a couple of months a year. I suppose that is true if your blood is thin and you don’t own a pair of trousers and a sweater.

The truth of it is that I am never the only person on the course when I head out to play in December, January and February. Even on the colder days when I have played, there have been others on the course.

November, however, looks good. Weather reports project temperatures in the fifties this next week. That’s plenty warm. I plan to go out and add another course or two to my collection of Michigan golf course reviews.