{"id":4378,"date":"2022-08-19T22:55:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-20T02:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=4378"},"modified":"2022-08-19T22:55:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T02:55:24","slug":"sopping-summer-souvenirs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=4378","title":{"rendered":"“Sopping Summer Souvenirs”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins<\/em><\/strong> are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a <\/em>bacon scrapin<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you do in the middle of a January snowstorm? Talk about walking with the family through a wooded path in July.\u00a0 What do you do in the sweltering heat of July? Talk about maybe taking up cross-country skiing next winter.\u00a0 What do you do in the midst of a July downpour? Get together with 3 buddies and talk about golf excursions down meandering fairways, of course!<\/p>\n

Four of us were gazing out Pete\u2019s back window across the broad expanse of drenched open green that separates homes in our \u2018nine-stop-signs-sized\u2019 community. It was a Monday, our usual community men\u2019s golf day, and the threatened summer rain had come through at the last minute just as we were hoping to get off the starting tee. The best consolation was to retreat to a cozy spot to refresh-our-spirits. That took us to Pete\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Pete travels a lot, and writes about it. The other three of us travel a bit, read some, and expound about everything as retired guys can. Today, the topic was, \u201cYour worst and best shot on a course more than 2 but less than 5 hours away.\u201d That\u2019s a lot of golf courses.<\/p>\n

Talking about the worst was a waste of time because it became patently evident that we all had too many options to put forward. We got off topic for a short while as we discussed the best brand of golf ball to use. We quickly concluded that we all could hit a Titleist, Top Flite, Callaway, Wilson, Nike, Srixon or Kirkland equally far into the bush.<\/p>\n

After an appropriate replenishing of our brown-pop cans, the discussion finally got to best shots. The downpour through the window became a hazy lens through which we all could imagine ourselves being \u2018out there\u2019 with the narrator, making the swing with him.<\/p>\n

All three of my fellows expounded on how they had approached the tee, peered at the target flag, made their practice swings, done a mental review of their lives as they made a final check that the flag-was-still-there, addressed the ball, made the controlled back-swing, put all their focus into contact and then a comfortable follow through.<\/p>\n

It was mesmerizing stuff. We were all there, reliving it. Visualizing the ball sailing through the air. But all the stories ended the same. They all had a hole-in-one. How can anyone top a story that ends with a hole-in-one? It\u2019s nirvana, ecstasy, the ultimate goal, the epitome of a golf shot!<\/p>\n

That left the last tale to me. Never had a hole in one. Never came closer than 5 feet. I\u2019ve had shots roll within an inch of the hole and then keep rolling 10 feet right on past. What to do? Go with a second best? A \u2018hole-in-two\u2019 with a miracle shot?<\/p>\n

It was in Michigan. Gaylord. 5 hours and 9 minutes by Google maps, but I was driving the vehicle so we squeaked in under 5 hours. Treetops Resort is an awe-inspiring challenge. It has 5 courses mixed into the one property. The landscape isn\u2019t much different than this side of Lake Huron, lots of rolling hills. But when a golf course is cut into those treed slopes there are many places where the slopes become hills, valleys, crevices or canyons as seen from your spot beside the ball.<\/p>\n

Number 5 on the Threetops course (all 9 holes are par 3s) has a 90 ft. vertical drop from the tee to the green. The idea is to hit the ball straight out into space about 110 yards, watch it fly away, then gradually see gravity\u2019s effect as it drops, and hope it doesn\u2019t land in one of the 5 surrounding sand traps, but rather plonks onto the green. It was so much fun, I hit 5 balls off into space and still don\u2019t know where they landed. But it was exhilarating!<\/p>\n

My \u201csecond-best\u201d story happened on the Treetops Signature Course, designed by Rick Smith after he had toured courses in Ireland and Scotland for inspiration. I hit from the \u201cwhites\u2019 and the second hole is a par 3, 144 yards. My first shot sailed off into the distance, bounced and rolled down the middle, drifted left with the slope, and ended up in a sand trap beside the green. When I stood over my ball, sand wedge in hand, looking up over the trap\u2019s edge toward the flag, I couldn\u2019t see the flag.\u00a0 The trap ledge was higher than me standing at its bottom. This appeared to be a five-shot effort, just to get out of the trap.<\/p>\n

I walked out, around the trap to orient myself to where the flag really was. Back into the trap, I squidged both feet firmly into the sand, opened the club face, took a deep breath, smooth back-swing, and a strong blast of sand obliterated my vision.\u00a0 While shaking sand off myself, and looking around to see which side of the trap the ball had hit, I heard a yell from above, \u201cIt went in! It went in!\u201d<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t see the ball anywhere in the trap but these guys have well-earned reputations. I yelled back, \u201cQuit jerking me around! Did anyone see where it went?\u201d\u00a0 Answer, \u201cIt\u2019s in the hole!\u201d\u00a0 \u2018Oh yah!\u2019, I said to myself, walked out and around the trap to the green and my ball was nowhere to be seen. With doubt I peered into the hole. Yup! With casual nonchalance I picked it out, gave it a confirming glance and said, \u201cGot my<\/em> birdie! You guys done here?\u201d<\/p>\n

A trip to the U.S. these days requires some deliberation, but a trip down memory lane to Treetops, on a sopping summer day in July, makes some stories into souvenirs.<\/p>\n

NOTE: Bacon Scrapins are ‘made up’ tales. Except for the first-person singular, the characters’ names are fictional.<\/em><\/p>\n

You may send appropriate email comments to the writer at thisiswilmot@gmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bacon Scrapins are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They\u2019re tasty, but the \u2018nutrition\u2019 needs searching for. This tale is a bacon scrapin. What do you do in the middle of a January snowstorm? Talk about walking with the family through a wooded path in July.\u00a0 What do you do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4072,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4378","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4379,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4378\/revisions\/4379"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}