Shooter and the Iron Wood

On July 12th, 3 friends and I went to Ironwood golf course to play a round.  It turned out to be a beautiful course that I will definitely return to - hopefully several more times this year.  In front of our foursome were a couple of tourists from just outside Detroit who had come up to a friend's cottage and were on the course because they had told their wives they were on a golf trip.   

They hadn't really come to play, however, and by the time they teed off at 11:30 AM, they were plenty drunk.  On the first tee, the more drunk of the two guys - Shooter was his nickname - pulled back his driver and slammed the ball....right into the metal shed standing 15 feet to the right of him.  He pulled out another ball, swung, and saw his ball land in a pile of manure just in front of the shed.  Not one to be put off by this unfortunate run of bad luck, Shooter good-naturedly told his buddy "just give me a 6 on this hole", picked up his errant golf balls, sat down in his cart, and resumed drinking his beer. 

We followed them for the front 9, catching up to them at each tee, and I don't think Shooter took more than a couple dozen swings all day.  On at least 4 holes I saw him hit his tee shot, which usually went about 20 yards, after which he would tell his friend "just give me a 6 on this hole", then go back to the cart and drink some more beer. By the 8th hole, they had between them downed 16 bottles of beer - 16!!  By then, Shooter could barely stand up straight, let alone swing a club without throwing himself off balance.  Luckily, they were both very good-natured drunks, and insisted on buying our foursome a round of drinks after we teed off on the 7th. 

I'm not quite sure what happened to Shooter and his friend - they disappeared after about the 10th hole and we didn't see them again.  Perhaps the course marshal finally decided they were just too drunk and sent them packing.  Perhaps they just passed out in a bush somewhere, looking for a lost golf ball.  Either way, they lightened up the round for our foursome and showed us how much fun golf can be when you just don't care how you play.  I know many people who could use that reminder from time to time - myself included.