In the Masters? – Nope. No Golf. Not This Year

Didn’t Go to the Masters

What did they tell me when I asked about playing in the Masters?  Nope. Not this year – or any.  I’m not even in the PGA.   Who was I informed by?  My old golfing boss who ran the golf driving range where I had worked.   Twice I asked him why and the third time he told me:  “Well, when you putt you are trying to putt straight, just like you are shooting arrows.” He said, “with all your practice you’d think you would be getting closer to the hole.”  But I wasn’t.  I still hadn’t learned to hook properly either on the greens or on the fairways.  At least I don’t cry after my sixth putt to the flag.  

The fairway – I don’t spend much time there.  I’m usually off to looking for my golf ball on either the left or right side of all that nice green grass.  And I walk the course, never using a caddy.  I have enough people in a foursome to laugh at my play – I don’t want to be paying for one more person to join in on the laugh track.  I lug that bag myself – with two ball retrievers – just in case I break one.

I’m not saying I don’t take my game seriously.  I do – I do everything possible to lower my scores.  I go to the driving range almost every day to hit a bucket of balls, bouncing them off of the golf picker out around a hundred and sixty yards - which is about as far as I can drive a ball.   I take lessons from a golf pro.  At least I think he is a pro because he does wear Bermuda shorts.  And the best thing I do to lower my score is to cheat.  Yeah, cheat.  Some days you’d think I was playing soccer out there, the way I can kick a ball around.  And I am good with a pencil too.  I certainly know how to add.  But I am much, much better at subtraction.

So where does all of this leave me?  Painting.  To relax I was told by my doctor take golf. It can be a relaxing hobby.  Nope.  Not relaxing.  So I took up painting.  The time lapse golf video you see here is a sample of what I do with paint.  It’s short – the demonstration is about 35 seconds and the actual sports art is about seven feet.  If you are on my blog you surely know that I am a sports artist, painting professionally for sports stadiums and arenas and other commercial projects.  I take commissions and would be happy to do a sports selfie of you playing your favorite sport.  You can reach me through my

contact pages

and I will be happy to discuss the possibilities with you.

Golf Art Golfer Bubba Watson painting

Bubba Watson is currently ranked 3rd in the World Golf Rankings.  The painting is approximately 4 feet by 8 feet, acrylic on unstretched canvas.

My current interest in golf is limited to watching a few holes of golf on TV on a Sunday afternoon.  I shouldn't really say I watch the golf - I use it as a way of relaxing after working hard in the yard.  My wife thinks that I like golf - that I watch it to keep current on a category of sports for my work.  As you probably already know, I'm a sports artist and have been making a living at it for quite a number of years.  It is important to know what is going on with different sports - but golf?  It is hard for me to keep track of the players.  It doesn't help that I usually fall asleep on the couch when I should be paying more attention to the game.

My history with golf is somewhat short.  I managed  a golf driving range when I was in college,  I never played the game,  and my ex- father-in-law was a scratch golf player who played (at the time) the longest golf game in history.  Now, what does that mean, "the longest golf game in history."

 When he was in college and on the USC golf team an opportunity became available for him to do a publicity stunt - of sorts.  I never knew why or for what reason but somehow he got connected with "Riply's Believe it Or Not"  to play the longest golf game.  My understanding is that he went out to the LA Country Club, (a bit prestigious)  and where his dad was a member and played the first hole.  He then was driven to the LA airport (LAX) and flew to Phoenix, Arizona to another country club and played the second hole.  From there on he took flights to different parts of the US working his way across the country playing proceeding holes until he had played eighteen and reached New York.

Ripley's Believe it or Not.  Here is a link to Bubba's facebpook page https://www.facebook.com/BubbaWatsonGolf