With no sports to write about for months and none to watch on TV or barely any to participate in – only golf has remained a constant in my life. If it wasn’t for this little four letter word -GOLF-I would be a screaming looney tunes human what with all the insanity going on in our world since late February. No March Madness, no hockey playoffs, no spring training baseball games, no NBA, WNBA, pro golf, auto racing, horse racing, soccer….NOTHING. Deadly disease, rioting, looting, protests, economic hardships, no work, no play, no new TV shows, no movie theaters, concerts or any fun pastimes whatsoever.

Daily death tallies, new cases of the disease, restaurants and other small businesses closing for good – Dow Jones crashing, rising and crashing again. It’s all overwhelming and devastating and oftentimes hard to take in on a daily basis. I, personally, have been on work furlough since March 15 – right at the height of what would have been the beginning of the crazy fun March Madness tournaments. I was so looking forward to seeing if my beloved Tennessee Lady Vols would make the tournament and seeing if the top player in the country, Sabrina Ionescu out of Oregon, would lead her team to the women’s NCAA Championship title over some other strong teams. And who would be a cinderella team in the women’s or men’s game also remembering how much fun it was watching Northwestern’s men’s team and the Loyola Men’s teams make it deep into the tournament a couple of years ago.

Okay so quit whining over no sports when there is so much horrible stuff going on – well I WON’T. I love sports – I love playing golf, watching golf on TV and then playing some more golf. I miss watching the LPGA Tour pros and have really enjoyed watching the men’s tournaments that have returned in the last couple of weeks. Miss watching my Cubbies and the Blackhawks and praying the Bears can practice and play in the fall. Maybe I should have titled this There But For the Grace of SPORTS go I…

I feel blessed to not have anyone in my family getting sick from the virus – and all of my friends are in one piece, although I pray for my friend, Pam’s mother, Marty, who had a knee replacement, it got infected and she ended up in the hospital right when all the virus stuff started happening. Then she got IT – the CoVid19 – add that to not having her new knee yet and complications arising along the way AND not being allowed visitors – there but for the grace of God go I. Be strong Marty – we all love you and send positive thoughts your way EVERY DAY.

Thank you to the powers that be for letting us golf – I could not understand opening up the courses in early May and then shutting them down again just because a few hundred people (note sarcastic tone here) showed up and packed the few courses that were open early. Showing just how desperate people were to get out and DO something, anything after being shut-ins for weeks. Almost all of the courses in Illinois are open for regular business now – you can walk, ride and enjoy the great outdoors and the greatest sport ever invented and get your mind off of all the nastiness around us all.

Being on furlough from my part-time job has given me time to play more golf than I’ve played in several years and I am like a kid in a candy store. When I first started playing golf many years ago it was for fun as an after work activity and we were all more interested in the “10th” hole so we could toss back a few drinks and talk about how we sucked at golf. Then down the road I got into golf on the professional level and I’ve been in heaven ever since. And now with what’s going on – it is literally saving my sanity while waiting for things to go back to normal (whatever that will mean in the near future – who knows???). Out on the course I don’t think about wearing a mask, hand sanitizers, social distancing or any of the new abnormal…I just think about how beautiful it is to spend the day outdoors playing a game that has graced my life in more ways than one.