When to take the hint?

Last night my father in law stayed over to play 9 holes of golf this morning with me before work. At some point this morning I should have probably thought to myself "that's enough" but I kept on going like the tenacious little git I am.

• Alarm didn't go off at 6:30 as planned and instead I woke up at around 7:15 which left us 15 mins or so to get out of the house into the car and on our way for our tee off time.
• Made a thermos of coffee for the round, loaded up the bag and left the house, loading my clubs into the back seat of the car, even though I normally put them in the boot (trunk)
• It's school summer holidays here in the UK and subsequently the roads are quiet, especially at that time of the morning. Were they quiet today? Were they heck. Pulled out of my road into standstill traffic for miles. Queued for about 10 mins and found a gap in the carriageway divider so turned around and took the back streets instead.
• Arrived at the course 40 mins after setting off on my 25 min journey.
• Parked the car and opened the boot to find that my wife in her infinite wisdom had removed my golf trolley and more importantly my golf shoes complete with glove and membership card. Wonderful!
• As I'd been debating about another pair of shoes to replace my 2 year old tatty ones I took a look in the pro shop and found a whopping selection of 5 styles of men's golf shoes, none of which I was overly keen on . One pair I could stomach they didn't have in my size, however they did have a pair of the red trim ones which were my size, comfortable and look great. £85.
• Bought my shoes, explained where my card was and after checking me on the system I was allowed to go and play golf.
• Walked back to the car and remembered that I needed a trolley. Walked back to the pro shop to find out about trolley hire. £4.
• Loaded my clubs onto a trolley that would be better suited on an airport runway pulling luggage around and walked to the first tee.
• Glove? No glove. *sigh* - Sports tape it is today.
• Scorecard? No scorecard. Back to the clubhouse for a scorecard.
• Back to the first tee. Tee'd up with my hybrid as it's a short layup before the stream. Hit the ball... after the ground. 50 yards.
• Second shot a nice easy 6i past the stream. Slice.
• Pitch shot on.
• 3 putts from 15ft.
• Second tee was closed so had to tee off a mat. Ugh!
• Tee'd off with my 7i, clipped the one single 5mm thick branch overhanging from a tree to the left and the ball fell out of the sky like lead.
• Second shot into a greenside bunker.
• Out of the bunker and a foot from the pin! Maybe the day's turning around.
• Putt lipped out. Maybe not.
• Several holes of hit and miss golf with the best difficult shots I've ever played mixed in with the worst easy shots I've ever played.
• Want a coffee now. Wait, why does my bag smell of sick? And it's wet... Ugh! Flask of soured milk sick smell coffee dripping out of the bottom of my bag everywhere. Wonderful!
• Last hole now. Perfect tee shot, low and long. Wow that's long. It's not even landed yet. It's landed now behind the green and it's rolling. Still rolling. Let's go find it. It's in a hole by a tree 20 feet past the green so I've hit it 240 yards. With a 3W. The one time I don't want to hit it perfectly. Really just not my day today.

Have you ever had one of "those" days?

I think my issue today was simply one of each problem only being a minor issue and not enough to stop the day going ahead.

p.s. Any thoughts on washing a golf bag to get rid of soured milk/sick smell?

p.p.s. I ended up removing everything from the bag, filling up the bath, adding a little washing powder and hand-washing the bag.

Yes I have.  Thanks for posting, I feel much better now!!

How about when your cart (trolley) rolls off the tee box down the hill into the street and all your clubs spill out............

Wow that sounds a bit like an average round of golf for me... I'd be happy with that. hehe.

i suffer these day, in exactly the same scenario "rushing and worrying about time and kit"

If i think im going to be late i rush, then i forget things, then it annoys me, then my round stinks

Today (yesterday, actually... it's late lol) was like that for me. I won't go into all the details of it, but my grip ended up soaked, my 4 iron got flung at a tree, and I scored a 56 on the front 9, and quit counting by the 10th hole. Just an aggravating day. I'm not one to complain, but I don't think I'm going to be playing 18 for a few weeks after this.

Sounds like an average day of golfing for me except for the gear issues. I keep my glove in the bag and carry a couple 32oz. Gatorades with me when I go. I also rent a cart (they have score cards on them) and don't wear cleats.

Hahahaha!!! I'm sorry that ALL THAT happened to you but you wrote it out so well! I have no idea how to get a sour milk smell out of a bag but keep rolling with the punches, my brother! It happens to all of us at sometime.

I think we all have, "those days" sometimes.  Its just part of the game.  The key is not letting it get to you and to just keep grinding.

Sports tape instead of a glove I find interesting though.  Ive never heard of anyone doing that and am curious as to if that actually works all that well.  Personally, I think Id go without a glove before I went with the tape.

I did actually start out "au naturelle" but after the first hole it started to drizzle and I was losing grip on the clubs. I carry zinc oxide tape for times when my right ring finger blisters rubbing against my left index (normally hot sweaty days) so I just put a single wrap behind the first knuckle from the tips of my left pinky, ring and middle fingers to keep grip. Seemed to work ok.

Tape helps prevent blisters (for us keyboard warriors with soft hands) and if you place the tape where you'd normally get blisters it improves your grip.

Wow, dude.  Might want to consider taking up cribbage or the like.

what brand tape do you use for your finger??? i need some for my right hand. i cant stand wearing a glove on my right hand so i'll just tape it.

Mueller Golfer's Tape - it's about $5.00 on Amazon.

I bought a few rolls of the 4Sport Zinc Oxide tape 1.25cm x 13.7m (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001FZIWC2/) at 76p per roll.

Generally works pretty well but does get a little sticky on the outside over time if you'd class that as a problem. For me it doesn't fuss me as the more grip I can get with lighter pressure the better.

that sounds horrible...

Positive thinking man... get rid of those negative thoughts about whats already happened and what could happen in the future no matter how bad of a day you are having.