Blog Post 8: Golfing with Friends

    Growing up I was always smaller than the kids around me (and I still usually am).  It felt every sport I played I was always outmatched by bigger and stronger kids until I played golf.  Golf finally proved a sport where although size matters in certain areas, skill, touch, and work ethic prove most important.  Between the ages of 12 and 18 I played or practiced golf about 340 days a year (in large part thanks to the great Southern California weather which I have been missing greatly during this storm cycle).  After getting to college though my yearly golf outings have amounted to about 4 days a year, due to busyness and cost reasons.

    Recently though, my friends and I have been getting back into golf, and we went out and played together this past Sunday.  After taking this class, I find myself noticing aspects of nature that I previously ignored.  During the round on Sunday I found myself analyzing the beauty of countless trees, noticing different trunk structures, leaf patterns, and branch growth, as well as the squirrels bounding around between the branches and the birds finding a looking point to sit on.  

    When I was younger, every tree simply posed as another obstacle in my round, making me grow to loathe them.  I never thought about how they were a part of nature and should be treasured, or how they signified the lucky few trees who remained after the golf course developers cleared their comrades around them.  I now better understand the negative toll that golf courses present to nature, and despite that I still play the game I love.  But I feel it is important to understand how the choices and activities we choose and do influence the environment around us and hopefully we can try to use that knowledge to better it. 





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