Mystery Sticks

Yesterday, I came home from work early and was rummaging around the hallway closet and discovered something I hadn't seen in quite some time. Way in the back, stuck behind the vacuum cleaner and a bunch of coats was this tall blue bag with a bunch of metal rods sticking out. I was curious so I crawled into the closet and pulled this mysterious bag out into the hallway.

After the cloud of dust settled, a closer inspection revealed about 14 of these sticks of varying lengths. The shorter ones had shiny, metal extensions attached to the end and seemed to be set at different angles. The taller sticks had these large hats on the ends that were covering larger, rounder metal extensions. The shortest stick in the bag had a squarer "head" attached to it and didn't look anything like the other 13. They all had these strange words like "Mizuno" and "Taylor Made" stamped on them, along with different numbers. What could these strange instruments be? What are they used for? Why do the numbers start at 3 and stop at 9? Why does one say "P"?

Searching for clues, I started looking through the bag. One pocket on the side had several small, white balls tucked into it. Another had a bag of tiny wooden stakes in it. Without thinking I took one of the balls and balanced it on the end of one of the stakes. As I did, old memories began rushing back into my mind. I could see people hitting the balls off the stakes with the metal sticks that were in the bag. They seemed to be advancing the balls towards these small holes set in the middle of a field. Some were walking. Some were riding in little mini-cars. A few people seemed to enjoy hitting off the freshly cut grass that extended as far as the eye could see. Many others looked like they preferred playing amongst the trees and sand.

It all came back to me know. These were tools used to play a game. Instinctively I threw the bag into the back of my truck and set off towards 620 where I recalled seeing people using these objects. Mr. Tee's Driving Range, that's the place. I forked over $10 inside the office and set off for the lawn with a big basket of balls. They were just like the ones in the bag except they were yellow and had stripes on them. I found a nice level spot, did a few stretches and started hitting the balls out into the field with the clubs. Nice and easy. The first few were a little crooked. On a couple I made more contact with the ground than the ball causing big patches of grass to go flying.

Pretty soon though, the balls started going in the direction of my target. I determined hitting the ball with the middle of the club's face produced a much better result than the edges. I worked my way through all the clubs in the bag from shortest to longest. The longest one was the most fun to hit, but it also was the hardest one to hit straight.

As I hit the last few balls it occurred to me what this was. This is golf (or at least some form of it). My old friend that I hadn't seen in a while. This may be something I'll have to do again.