Sportsmanship for once

I fell asleep on my couch watching golf this afternoon. I guess that statement really isn’t that surprising as watching golf is typically useful only in its ability to have you fall asleep. I usually turn to NASCAR for that sort of activity but the race was rained out. Anyway, I woke up to find that they were in a playoff where one golfer after taking his shot had to call over the rules official because a twig moved while he was taking his shot.

After a good fifteen minute discussion including use of video replay it was determined that he had artificially improved the lie of his ball and was given a two stroke penalty which obviously cost him the tournament. Now there are two fascinating things about this story. The first is that the guy who was penalized was a journeyman golfer for whom a victory would have made his career. He’s one of those guys who struggles to make the cut and has a chance to win a tournament but loses it do to an obscure rules violation. The other fascinating thing: he called the penalty on himself.

That is one of those aspects of golf that really doesn’t get discussed. The sport is built upon the idea of the players policing their own actions. The golfer called over the rules official immediately after he took the shot. He didn’t even hesitate to think. Now given that there was a tournament on the line the fact that he immediately did the right thing just says something about his character. It was actually one of the better things that I have seen in sports in a while.

Not much else from this weekend. Worked out, did laundry, cleaned the apartment, got my haircut, bought groceries, all of those things that a responsible adult needs to do to survive in this freaky modern world. I know it doesn’t read as well as when I was in KC and would have spent the entire weekend at Harry’s drinking until three in the morning but at some point your body just tells you that you are too old to keep that pace up. At some point in life you just have to admit that you are no longer a kid.

Best of 120 Minutes: I wish my teenage years were exactly like this video. Well, I wouldn’t have long hair but I wish I had spent most of my college years attending Sonic Youth concerts and hooking up with chicks in Nirvana t-shirts. Electrical engineering resulted in a misspent youth.



The five random CDs for the week:
1) Peter Bjorn and John “Writer’s Block”
2) Martin Zellar “Born Under”
3) Immaculate Machine “Fables”
4) The Connells “Ring”
5) Jay Farrar “Stone, Steel and Bright Lights”