The Best $90 I Ever Spent

I used to think the fake Rolex I bought in New York was the best $90 bucks I ever spent. It had a blue face and a calandar…slick. But alas, it said water resistent on the back…what I learned was it would break if it got wet…but reluctantly.

So that was money well spent until I saw the end of The Ryder Cup this morning. I placed a bet with my two friends Blair (Scotland) and Shane (N. Ireland) on this year’s matches.

Surely we couldn’t get beat again, at least not by the crazy ass-whuppin’ margin as Oakland Hills two years ago, right? His Tigerness is 5-0, Furyk is #2 in the World with his win in Canada…made something like 54 out of 57 10-footers or less? C’mon, who can beat them? Sure we had rookies but so did they. We had DiMarco, Mickelson, Cink. We had 17 Majors, they had 2. And those belonged to the oldest guy on the team!

But what we didn’t have was Darren Clarke. If you are a fan of golf at all you had to believe the Euros would be rallying behind him after losing his wife to cancer just a few weeks ago. My wife was out of town for the weekend so it gave me a miniscule feeling of what it’s like without her.

Not anywhere in the league of Clarke of course, but I missed her just the same. This is where my pals, including the two named above, are going to skewer me for saying such a thing…very unmanly. Oh well, occasionally it needs to be said.

Just about everyone I know and hang around with has a happy and healthy family. Not all, but just about…even the ones with challenges are full of love.

So my brilliant $5 a point wager has lost me $90. What surprised me is the bargain it became when I saw the mugging Clarke received from his teammates, their wives, and caddies…tears flowing…here too. It was a lot more than a golf round for all of them and it should be for us too. I never knew how much perspective you can buy for less than the cost of a new wedge.

Not to worry, Best In Golf will be back as cynical and sarcastic as ever next post. Promise.