Up and Down in One

Back in 2006, a venture capitalist friend told me, “if you live on the west coast, learn to play golf.”  Honestly, the penny didn’t drop too loudly for me – I had no intention of moving back to the US, much less California.  Add to that the fact that I had never even hit a golf ball in my life, and the chance of me to take a “game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an ever smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose” seemed remote.

But all that changed last February when I found myself parachuted into the golf Nirvana called southern California.  In the first month at work, colleagues invited me to the links numerous times – one person even asked me three times to play, somehow not registering that anyone with two hands and feet could not avoid the temptation.

So last July, I started my personal golf journey.  Remembering my college dean’s warning “if you’re going to take up golf, Ken, start with lessons or bad habits follow you to the grave” I found a teaching pro at the local course to start with.  And though we hadn’t planned it, our new house happens to sit just a 5 minute walk to a small par 3 with a driving range.

I can’t say I’ve learned golf just yet.  But I finally completed my set of personal clubs this January and have a group of guy friends that meet up on Saturdays for 18 holes.  My venture capitalist friend even called me last week – though not to play but rather ask us to buy his diabetic device company.  Perhaps we’ll both make par for the course.

Ken