Melbourne Golf

It looked like it was going to rain.

But the rain didn't change our plans, so much as impact on their execution. Paul and I still payed golf but it started coming down by the time we reached third hole. On the fourth it started pouring hard with a dark sky showing no sign of relief. By the fifth hole, we were the only people left on the entire course (which had been crowded). Paul wanted to keep going and, since he was in a thin cotton sweater and I had a sort-of-waterproof jacket on, I could hardly be the person to wimp out. It got so wet toward the end of the round that the ball would barely roll through the water on the greens. At one point, Paul sent a sky high chip onto a green and it stopped dead on landing. It landed with such a splash it could have been a fat guy in a belly flop competition. I almost fell over I laughed so hard. When we got to the ball we saw it had made a deep crater in the soggy green.

I scored a 64 which would be great for a round of 18 holes but not so good for the nine we played. My sneakers took more than a week to dry out and my pants and shirt were filthy because, while walking down a gentle hill, my feet slipped out from under me in the mud. Paul,who didn't even have winter gear on, was shivering in his car on the drive home. And it was his idea, remember.

All in all, with the pouring rain - and the Trams that run through the middle of the course - it was a very Melbourne game of golf.