In this morning’s sports page there was an article containing ten things to watch for in golf in 2013. By golf, they meant professional golf, which includes about .01% of all golfers. They aren’t golf. You are. I am.
So here are my predictions for golf in 2013.
1. I will play more golf that I did last year (which isn’t saying much, because getting over spine surgery (twice) means you don’t play at all).
2. I will practice more intelligently.* That means every ball hit has to have a purpose.
3. I will take more lessons to learn the finer points of maneuvering the ball around the course. One of those lessons will be nine holes with the pro who will pick the shot and put the club in my hand, for every shot, and tell me why.
4. I will watch less golf on TV.
5. I will play five courses I haven’t played before (which is saying a lot, because I play all over).
But enough about me.
6. The USGA will lose membership if it adopts a ban on the anchored putting stroke.
7. The golfing press will get Tiger Woods’s name into every article, and have a picture of him, even when he does squat. Which he will do. Often.
8. Golf equipment manufacturers will tell you that the clubs you bought two years ago, which you had to get because the clubs you bought two years before that were seriously out of date, are now seriously out of date and you have to buy this year’s model even though a few lessons would be a much better investment for half the price.
9. The U.S. Open at Merion will demonstrate that the old courses are old. We love them, but the modern game has passed them by. It’s time to play golf’s majors on courses designed to test the modern game.
There. That’s nine predictions, not ten, because golf is a game of nines, not tens. Happy New Year.
*I made a New Year’s resolution to go to the range often. This morning I modified that to, but only if its over 40 degrees outside. That’s intelligent practice, too.