Chet and Spike looked shellshocked as they made their way towards Hole 16.
“Did you think we were going to be chased by the bees?” Spike asked about the previous hole.
“No, but the beekeeper really did try to dissuade us from taking our shots,” Chet said.
“I don’t understand this course. We’ve gotten scared, drenched and lectured,” Spike said. “We’ve appeared on YouTube, the radio and TV.”
“Not great for our golf game,” Chet agreed. As they approached the tee box, they saw a man under a small tent with a sign next to it that said ‘golf lessons’.
The man got up and smiled at the two golfers. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and exuded a surfer vibe. “Welcome to my golf hole. I’m Mikey.”
“Hi Mikey,” Spike said. “Will you just tell us what we have to do to pass this hole and move on to the next one? We’re so close to the end.”
“There’s no catch here,” Mikey said with a smile. “This is just a hole where you can take golf lessons.”
“I think we’re good,” Chet said.
“How’s the golf game been today?” Mikey said. He grabbed the driver out of a golf bag he had next to him and set up to take a shot on the Par 4. “Craziest of your life?”
Spike and Chet looked at each other and nodded in agreement.
“People think that golf is a game of skill, but it’s actually an art,” Mikey said, and drove the ball seamlessly to a spot a little over halfway to the hole. “Painters use their imagination to see something in their heads and then make it happen in real life. An actor on stage must face an audience that might do anything. A trombonist must visualize notes on a slide. Golf is art too.”
“But what about when you’re being hounded by astrologists or ridiculed for your clothes?” Chet asked.
Mikey noted that both golfers appeared to have new outfits after visiting Hole 9. “At the end of the day, these are the distractions that keep you from creating the art of a great golf game.”
“We only have three holes left. How many lessons could there be?” Spike asked.
“Hole 17 is by far the craziest hole on the course,” Mikey said. “Some call it a blight on society. Others say it’s where immaturity never dies.”
Spike and Chet looked at each other. This golf course bounded the pair. They could not believe they had made it this far.
“How about this?” Mikey said. “I help you with your games just on this hole today. Then the next time you come play the course, we do the whole round together?”
Chet and Spike did not know what to say. They both hoped never to see the course again, but somehow also knew they would be drawn back.
“Maybe we are artists?” Spike said.
“I think we’re dehydrated,” Chet replied, and he placed his ball on the tee. “Okay, teacher, what should I do?”
The Finch Golf Club is part of a series, you can read other entries here.