A good day ...

When you swing a golf club with effortless smoothness and balance, and connect purely with the ball, sending it high and far and exactly where you wanted it to go, it's one of life's more enjoyable things.

I did that today, quite a few times. Like on no. 14, when I ripped my drive down the middle, a slight draw well past the 150-yard marker and coming to rest about 80 yards from the green. I neatly put my second shot on the putting surface and nearly holed the birdie putt.

Then there was no. 15, with the tees moved up a bit, so hitting a driver might have put the ball in the big lake that sits, I don't know, 280 yards away, the fairway running slightly downhill to the water. So today, it was a 3-wood off the tee, and I nearly whiffed it. The ball squirted out there about 100 yards, and I had to lay up in front of the lake, and then I hit a nice little 6-iron fade right into the drink. Ker-plunk.

Sigh.

That's golf, though. I wound up with 86, and beat my buddy, Bubba, by one shot. Our friend, Gator, wasn't quite with it today, and I'm not sure how he finished.

But, it was a great day. Any day out on the golf course is a great day. Some are greater than others, but still, it beats the heck out of working, I can tell you that.