Recently I got to go golfing with my old college roommate Robert Figuracion (Bobby or Fig to me and other old friends, Robert to those who met him after age 22).  We roomed together for many years while we were at George Mason, were in each others weddings along with our other roommate Tony Walsh, and Bobby and his wife Beth are largely responsible for Celeste and I finally deciding to move to Winston-Salem.  We’d always visited my family here, but when Bobby and Beth moved here from Northern Virginia and started telling us how much they loved it we finally started seriously contemplating the big move.

I’ve lived here for over three years and had only played golf once, at the soon to be demised Grandview course with my cousin Chris who affectionately called it "Goatview."  So Bobby took me out to Tanglewood and for $37 we got to play as many holes as we wanted to all day.  Actually the $37 got us an all day pass for the Championship course, but if we’d wanted to we could have just played the Reynolds course all day for $25. They’d just aerated the Reynolds course so we opted for the Championship course instead.  Whether you’re talking $37 or $25 you don’t see greens fees like that, with the cart included, at courses in the DC area.  We played the Championship in the morning, had some lunch, and then figured we might as well play Reynolds in the afternoon because I kind of wanted to see it and bumpy greens were something we could live with.  To be honest I thought the Reynolds course was more attractive, and it was definitely a damned-sight easier to play.  Real golfers would definitely prefer the Championship but to a duffer who’s there as much for the scenery as the golf the Reynolds course offers a lot.

At some point we got to reminiscing about the first time we’d golfed together.  It was in the spring the first year we were roommates and it was my first time golf outing ever.  We played on the Par 3 at Burke Lake Park and Bobby, who thinks I’m the luckiest human being alive, remembers clearly our first hole.  I hit my tee shot about 30 yards wide of the green and then crushed my second shot with a pitching wedge and it was going to fly the green by another 30 yards except the ball hit the flag stick and dropped six feet from the hole.  I think he was ready to walk off the course then and there.

Throughout our early and mid-20s Bobby and I played lots of the public courses in Northern Virginia, and at least once at Bryce Resort when my mom had a place there. We played enough that Bobby’s Christmas gift to me one year was a set of re-built clubs that he bought from a guy who rehabbed clubs in his basement.  They were honest-to-God wood drivers and I remember distinctly how blown away I was by the gift.  I also remember being pretty embarrassed about whatever lame gift I got him, but hopefully that’s water under the bridge.

Eventually kids and real jobs happened and we rarely got to play in the subsequent 12-15 years.  That made our Tanglewood outing a real joy to behold.  Bobby’s gotten a lot better in the years since we last played and I still hammer out the 120+ rounds with abandon.  Of course it really didn’t matter since the true purpose was just hanging out, shooting the breeze and trying not to lose more than half a dozen balls or kill any wildlife.  I’ve killed two geese with errant drives in the past.

We’ve promised to go out more often and Bobby mentioned Pudding Ridge.  To me it doesn’t matter where we play, but I’d like to go out soon so I can try and get in some practice before October 13.  That’s when my cousin Adam gets married and as part of the festivities I get to go golfing with my uncles and cousins who all somehow manage to shoot scores without triple digits.  However I don’t need an excuse to get out there again with Bobby; days like we had at Tanglewood are priceless and will be even more so if I can manage to shoot sub-100.  Of course that’ll be the day I’m ice skating in hell too.

Tee it up dude.