When I first started playing golf I was broke.  I was also in my mid 20s and didn't actually know much about golf.  I was very concerned with losing golf balls, because they cost money, and they were not cheap. I was, and to some degree still am, not comfortable with the concept of throwing a dollar away. So the idea of hitting a golf ball over water that was too deep or mucky to wade through made me uncomfortable  - okay, nervous. Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm nervous I don't do my best, no matter what I'm doing. So the very act of hitting a golf ball in the direction I wanted it to go was complicated by the fact that it had to do it almost completely in the air. (Worm burners get go "splash"!)

So I developed the strategy probably picked up from one of my initial golfing buddies, of using a "water ball", a ball so beat up and scuffed that I would not normally play it, so if it got lost - oh well. I could always take a drop.

When I first moved to Florida I thought I would be playing golf more often. Ha. For the first few years I hardly played at all.  My leather wing tipped golf shoes got moldy and I had to throw them out. After we got established for a while I began to participate in a golf marathon fund raiser for a private school. This was and still is a very effective way to raise funds. If you want to know details about how golf marathons work, you can contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and I'll lay it out for you.  Suffice it to say that I was committed to playing 100 holes of golf in one day. Water hazards are a fact of life in Florida, and the event was eventually moved to the Habitat Golf Course (to read my review of the Habitat, click here). The is a lot of water at the Habitat, but only on the 3rd, 9th, 11th and 18th is it necessary to actually clear the water on a direct path to the green.

The 18th is the toughest, because on this par 5 you have to clear water twice, once off the tee and again to set up an approach shot. I dreaded the 18th, so there was the potential for a lot of lost balls. I would spend the entire back nine dreading it, and I spent the trip from the 17th green to the 18th tee mumbling "I hate this hole, I hate this hole, I hate this hole" and promptly hit my tee shot into the water.

Somebody reminded me of the idea of visualizing yourself doing something successfully and applying it to my fear of water hazards. I thought about that and came to the conclusion that there was no reason I shouldn't be able to do this. If I could hit good shots that did not do over water there was no reason I could not hit good shots that did go over water. I began approaching the 18th tee mumbling "I love this hole, I love this hole, I love this hole" and I began to hit good shots over water.

The longer I play this game the more I realize how much of it is psychological. We can talk ourselves into all kinds of things, can't we? And a lack of confidence can cause us to let up on our downswings, causing duffed shots and poor scores, too.

This is the view from the tee box. You can see all the scrub and jungle right in front of it, and beyond the water that continues off to the left.  Beyond the water is a bunker that parallels the water that should be cleared before the landing area. The landing area rises and is bordered by trees and underbrush. The second shot will be taken toward the left.

Here's where my tee shot landed and I duffed this shot. My friend Chris took this picture and the next, and I choked!

Here's my next shot (I was getting used to the camera)... It was a good shot that ended up near the 150 marker on the far side of the water.

This is the view from where I made my approach shot, which landed on the green. The green is to the right of the bunkers, the flag almost right in front of the low point in the trees.

If you can make it out, there are two balls on the green; mine is the one to the left, which is just beyond the hole, as the fairway came from the right.It would be nice to report that I sank this putt, but I'd be lyin'....

My friends Chris (left) and Tom (right) who helped me research and photo this blog.