This Golf Insider UK Post is Ruining My Life

Between 2001 and 2022, I played golf once. It was the first time I had ever played eighteen holes. It was a hilly course. We didn’t have a cart. I was gassed by a few holes into back nine.

Prior to this gap, I spent my middle school years playing a public nine every weekend in Pittsburgh, a par 3 course at the Jersey Shore, and took lessons at the Manasquan River Club.

Then, I discovered lacrosse and the clubs were shelved.

At some point during covid lockdown in NYC, I discovered by apartment had a simulator in the basement and the golf bug slowly crept back in.

I had a 7 iron and would take hell cuts until my hands blistered battling the frustration of having no idea where the ball was going swing to swing and the misery of moving to NYC only to be told you can’t go outside anymore.

Eventually lockdown restrictions eased.

Carcosa Country Club briefly details my early days in the sport, fast forwards twenty years to 2022, what’s happening now, and what I hope to accomplish.

From February 1 to April 14, 2023 I played over 80 rounds of sim golf at Five Iron in Chicago.

My initial goal was to try to figure out my distances. I had played two rounds outside in July and November had no idea where the ball was going or how to get it where I wanted it to go.

More on those outside rounds later.

After waking up early to walk three blocks to the simulator, mashing through a quick warm up, and racing through two sim rounds before they told me my time was up, I began to wonder…

Could a wiry 37 year old, former D3 lacrosse player, who had played golf outside just three times since freshman year of high school, dramatically improve his game?

Two hours a day of specific, high quality practice and play 18 holes a week?

I thought, I’m already playing two sim rounds a day five times a week.

Why not me?

I have since read this article over and over. Perhaps putting on my carpet would have been a better use of my time.

And of course, like a certain ring from a certain fantasy novel, a certain podcast called out to me just days after I had conducted this Google search.

Season One of Carcosa Country Club arrives soon.