From the Rough: Tee time

Because it was very wet and windy last week, instead of playing golf I stayed at home and sorted through my golf equipment in what was something of an annual stocktaking exercise.

I emptied my golf bag and a couple of drawers where I keep my golf gear, and noted down what I have. Not only that, but I broke everything down into categories. For example, I have 188 golf balls, of which 38 are brand new, 74 are okay, 30 are just about usable and 46 are only good enough for practice. Interestingly, I have five pitch repairers and 12 ball markers.

Tees provided a particularly fascinating area of study. Would you believe that I have 492 tees; of which 98 are red, 54 are blue, 78 are yellow, 146 are white and 19 are green? The balance are a mix of colours that I wasn?t able to sort out because my wife came into the room, looked at me, shook her head and said, ?Very sad,? before leaving.

I stopped what I was doing and suddenly panicked. Was I indeed behaving strangely? Then it struck me ? of course I was. What on earth was I doing sorting the tee pegs by colour when the only thing that matters is size? Now I have them neatly in jars according to their length ? short, medium and long. No wonder she thought I was crazy!