Speaking of drinking and golfing.....
The best I have ever played was when I was in a tournament at Bradford Country Club which was a benefit for a fellow Verizon guy who had been tragically
paralyzed in a car accident. He had little kids and everything. It was awful. Anyhow, it was a long drive with my partners from Foxboro to almost the NH border and these
guys had made up a cooler containing a disgusting blend of tanqueray and gatorade. It picked you up and knocked you down all at the same time. I felt the siren song of peer
pressure, drank my share and showed up to the course trashed like a pirate. We all were.
It was a beautiful fall day and the course was extremely hilly and challenging, but from the first horn I was relaxed and in control despite the booze and a steady stream of
maintenance beers. I hardly hit any bad shots and when I did one of the other guys bailed us out. Bob Montgomery, the old Red Sox Catcher and TV guy, was there
doing a challenge on a par 3 to get inside his shot for a raffle ticket and he was close, but I got him. I ended up winning the drawing for a Cleveland lob wedge which I never
could hit but still own. So, we're at 9 under approaching the final hole which was a short, but tricky, downhill par 4 at about 245 (normally longer but they were working
on it or something). There was a backup near the tee box with drunken Verizon people hanging out and my crew started mocking me "C'mon! Do something for a change,
we're getting tired of carrying you!! and so forth and some of the bystanders chimed in. It had been explained to them that I was having quite a day. I stepped in and acted
like I didn't hear a thing and hit, by a wide margin, the best 5 wood of my life, which landed soft and stuck 4 feet from the cup and they all exploded and I'm telling you that felt pretty good. It seemed, for the first time, that competence at golf was actually possible. I tapped in the putt for a natural eagle and we went to 11 under, which turned out to be one stroke better than any other team. I've never been close to winning a tournament before or since that day and was proud to have had a lot to do with that. I couldn't believe it. We donated the cash we won back to the family and got our picture in the local paper.
That encouraged me to experiment with getting hammered to try to recapture the flow I felt that day, but it never worked out worth a damn. Turns out the
whole day was just a fluke. Oh, well. Now, I'll have a few beers now and then, but generally just try to stay bright-eyed and my game seems to be better
off. However, after 18 holes on a warm day nothing tastes any better than a fine, cold craft brew on tap.