I read only one cartoon strip on a daily basis, the brilliant “Dilbert” by Scott Adams. I was first attracted to Dilbert during my career as a corporate executive. It was comforting to know that someone out there understood so perfectly the odd behavior of a few of my fellow execs, as well as one or two bosses whose peculiarities were the stuff of cartoons. Dilbert helped me laugh to keep from crying (except, of course, when I recognized a little of my own behavior in the strip; then it was just crying).
Now almost seven years beyond early retirement -– my choice, in case you are wondering –- I still read the column every day. It is funny how the things that annoyed you up close and personally are a source of great mirth once you put some distance and time between you and a former career.
Cartoonist Adams spares no one or no thing in Dilbert, and today he got around to the game of golf.
Wally, who is the laziest person on the staff –- he celebrates his sloth –- announces today that he wants to expand his uselessness beyond the workweek. “I decided to take up golf,” he tells Dilbert and fellow staffer Anok, “so I can be useless on the weekends too.”
But when Dilbert asks Wally, “Are you going to take lessons?” the idiot savant’s response is unerring in its insight into the game most of us love to hate.
“You get to hit the ball more,” says Wally, “if you don’t.”
Today’s comic strip is available at http://www.dilbert.com.
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The large estate house dominates Keswick Estate near Charlottesville, VA, and almost puts Arnold Palmer's monstrous bunkers in their place.
Keswick Estate is sited on one of the most beautiful pieces of property in central Virginia, just east of Charlottesville, and at its core, sitting high above the Arnold Palmer golf course and the rest of the property, is a large estate house now used as both a resort and clubhouse for Keswick’s members. When I played the golf course a few years ago, I thought Palmer’s layout was out of character with the rest of the estate, lacking a certain consistency and refinement. Some holes were straightforward, almost boring, and others were overwrought, with huge bunkers carved into steep hills that would have presented enough challenge without the scarring sand traps.
Homes in the community are large, generally on two-acre lots and expensive. Current listings show the lowest priced home at $1.7 million, but it does boast more than 6,000 square feet, 6 BRs, 5 ½ BAs and frontage on the 4th fairway of the golf course. Nearby Charlottesville is a wonderful town to visit and live in, with much American history and Thomas Jefferson’s inspiration, the University of Virginia, at its heart. The downtown mall, closed to vehicular traffic and rife with interesting shops and restaurants, as well as a popular amphitheater for concerts, shows that city planners were able to think out of the box more than a decade ago.
Contact me if you would like to learn more about Keswick Estate or the other interesting, and lower-priced golf communities in the Charlottesville area.
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Last year, I bought a used set of Ping Eye Two irons I thought would help me straighten out my longer approach shots. This morning, I thought I was dumb lucky when I read in the Wall Street Journal that old Ping Eye Two irons with U-Grooves are exempt from a ban the USGA imposed on PGA golfers this year and on us amateurs in 14 years. As a result of a 1990 court case, the USGA had agreed that the Ping Eye Twos would conform in “perpetuity.” For that reason, golfers like John Daly will be able to continue to use their Pings, which generate more backspin out of the rough, even though their competitors will be using clubs with new, less active grooves.
I don’t notice much action out of the rough with my Ping Eye Twos, but I don't generate John Daly like clubhead speed (I can't take the club back that far). After reading the article this morning, I thought maybe I could sell my relics to another PGA tour player. But alas, when I checked with Ping, I found out that my irons are circa 1993, too late to be grandfathered in.