I believe golf has seen it's peak. when the PGA decided to stop televising the Thursday and Friday play on ESPN and moved it to the Golf channel I almost completly stopped watching.

Okay so I am only one person, but what if I wasn't the only one. what if there were men with young children that might have taken up the game, but now since dad isn't that into it they may never experience the agony of golf.

The other thing that i have noticed is the game has changed. i play at a dirt track that has rock hard fairways, hard greens and buffolo grass. Eveeyone plays winter rules all the time. When i go to other courses It is the same way even when the course is in good shape.

if you allow the rules to be abused and in many cases disregarded what you have left is not golf but Putter golf, for lack of a better word.  What is really funny is players post their score on GINN or some other scoring system to get a handicap rating. what a joke.

To the unknowing let me explain: A handicap is the amount of strokes that you may reduce your score by if you were playing against some one who is a scratch golfer.(someone who shoots par or better). Each course is given a rating based on the many factors about the golf course. One of the things not used in the rating is how you play the course.

Why is this important; It does not taken in the fact that you landed in an old divot and moved the ball out. it does not take in the fact that you are playing on a bare patch of ground and move the ball to a turf of grass. it does not take in the fact that you are 2 feet from the hole and you pick up your ball for a gimme. it does not take in the fact that you can improve your lie everywhere on the course.

So when you go to play in a tournament that uses your GINN handicap and you have a 15 handicap you havce to play by the rules of the PGA you shoot the score of someone who should have had a 30 handicap. that is why only the good players get to play in the individual stroke play tournaments and the rest of us play scrambles.

One more interesting note. i played with a man who seemed to be a stickler for the rules. if i had a question about a ruling he knew the answer to them all. Yet when he got to the green to putt he always changed his golf ball. Another guy who also had the rules down pat and would let you know in a minute if you were doing something wrong, always carried 15 or 16 clubs in his bag. In the group i regularly play in I am the only one who has to abide by all the rules. others in the group may make an infraction but you won't hear anyone call them on it. Sound familiar.

Women and golf? sounds like an oximoron. I am still amazed by the swing of a well endowed woman. The LPGA has done wonders for women in golf. I admit i watch them play and there are good. I see more women play by the rules then i do men. But even at my advanced years i am distracted by a pretty women swinging a gol club . or marking her ball. i have often said i am playing in the wrong group, but it is the company i desire not the playing of the woman.

At many a course the women have fought for and be allowed a day for them to play. what is irritating is they thing that three groups of women have the run of the whole course and don't have to extend golf etiquitte to the other players. Slow play is a killer to a good rouind of golf.

I am no longer passionate about the game. There was a time if someone asked me what days i play golf i would say only on days ending in "Y". since i had to go to work again i only play three or four days a week. When the cold weather sets in i don't go out unless it is at least 40 degrees, in summer if the temp reaches 104 i try to play in the mornings. Rain is okay,bur snow is a no no. Thunder and lightening now will close the course, but i remember when we played until someone got struck.

i was an avid fan of the 19th hole. since i no longer imbibe I have passed it by, but there was a day when i looked forward to it. today two drinks and you need to call a cab. but that is good, otherwise i might hit that women leaving the course who wouldn't let me thru.