A Cold Weather Spin on a Warm Weather Sport

For many golfers, January/February is a down-time for the game. As a youngster growing up in southeast Massachusetts, my Dad and I used to play golf as much as we could during the winters with some fun modifications that bring back great memories.

Each night we used to putt 3 sets of 10 putts on the cement basement floor (15' putt, slight break which you could take out with more speed on the putt). We had to record how many times we hit a skinny brick against the wall and after 2,000 putts, he was just 1 up!

Dad was a remarkable tailor and clothing designer. He designed a chipping net for us to use in the basement and drew some circles on it so we could try for different targets. He sewed it so the net would catch the balls in the bottom and we could later clean them all out at once. In his later years, he tried working on his full swing and to avoid the overhead beams, added in a little squat so he could finish his swing. As a teaching professional, I had to later help him undo his little squat finish which he so faithfully developed in the basement during those long winters. It exacerbated his slice and wasn't something I recommended for his back!

Ice Golf... FUN! I grew up living on the 10th fairway (well, just past the OB stakes) of Heritage Hill Country Club, a gorgeous executive course where Dad and I used to go out in the winter on weekends and play on frozen ground and ponds. Our rule was if you were firing over a pond, the ball had to bounce twice on the ice before making it over or you were given a 1-stroke penalty. Sometimes the fairways were so frozen that you could hit 5 iron from 200 yards away and it would bounce like on asphalt all the way down near the green. That's my kind of 5 iron!

Rotating Flags... I remember this at Poquoy Brook Golf Course very well - with the greens frozen most of the winter, we would play to one of three flagsticks on the green. When we finished putting, we had to rotate the flagstick to another cup so it would be used equally since they couldn't change the cups.

Hot chocolate and a chocolate frosted Dunkin Donut after golf... my favorite!