Nine-hole Belated Birthday Game: 5 ' 20

I had promised Bruce to play a  nine-hole round of golf  to celebrate his birthday.  Unfortunately  we were locked indoors on April 30th by a  strong thunder-storm and a soaking rain.  The wet stuff stuck around for another two days.  Today was the first day that the greens were dry enough to play one and that we had clear skies.   Bruce woke up to sunshine,  and  promptly grabbed a phone to  check on  start times.  He came back with a big smile on his face,  and  announced that he had booked us a 9:20 am game to play the back nine on our home course,  Pawley's Plantation.

His smile got even wider when  we  tee'd off  on the  tenth fairway.  

 And then Bruce broke into an out-right grin when landed his ball on the signature course's 13th  hole which is surrounded by 3000 degrees of marsh.  For someone who has only been able to  play golf  one or twice in the past year, he was playing really well today.

Two of the nine holes we were playing have sand hazards.  Seven of the nine holes  have serious water hazards (they are bordered by marshes and /or have large retaining ponds).   Some have both, and almost all of them have enormous heritage oaks that have to be played around.  

The Pro-Shop had  paired us with a young, lone-player from upstate SC.

On our first tee-off, it was obvious this young man would  out-drive us septuagenarians,

no matter how skillfully  we played. 

Initially,  we were not happy, but since our new partner was walking the course, we set him up to tee off first,   then had him start walking on the cart toward his next ball. 

By the time he had walked to his ball,  we  had finished our second shots to catch up.

As the game progressed we learned that  our new golf partner had a technical background similar to our  own.   After that ,we found that common-ground, the differences in our skill level seemed a lot less intimidating.

Bruce was exhausted but was so happy that
 he made it to the 18th hole in good form.

It's been months since  either of us have played, so  neither Bruce nor I kept score. 

My impression is that neither of us have lost muscle memory for  how and where to drive the ball,

 but both  of us have lost muscle strength,

and that we need to spend more time at the driving range to rebuild our muscles.

Now that the weather has finally turned a bit warmer, 

the driving range may prove an ideal way to get a bit of 

safe-distancing exercise.