Golf Dreams

The most definitive proof of being a golf sicko.

I’ve previously detailed here and elsewhere that I’ve become a golf sicko in the second half of my life. It’s my main hobby, and my office is bordering on a shrine to the courses I’ve played - I have in various corners, three different hooks holding up bag tags from various courses (the hooks are golf club heads), a Masters poster from the first tournament there, a collection of all the ball marks I’ve collected from courses I’ve played, a display of pencils from the top courses I’ve played, as well as two shelves of books and magazines on golf. The other wall has golf pin flags and posters, as well as a gorgeous framed print of Royal Dornoch Golf Club. Oh, and a few trophies I’ve won as well as some decorative golf related things I’ve purchased.

I should also add that my office is where I keep my actual golf clubs (two sets), extra golf balls, shoes, etc.

Somewhere in that office I actually have my desk and computer and it’s where I work five days a week. Or so.

ANYHOW, this is all just to say I really like golf. And the biggest evidence of how much is that it’s invaded my dreams.

Like many dreams, they don’t make a ton of sense and here’s a big caveat that I know there’s NOTHING more boring than listening to someone else’s dream, but hey, I’m the one writing this so I get to decide what to write.

I’m somewhere playing golf - it’s never an actual course I’ve played, but it is a course I’m EXCITED about playing, somewhere I’ve been wanting to play for some time. For instance, it might be “Erin Hills” though in my dream it doesn’t necessarily look anything like the actual golf course. The point is it’s supposed to be a special round that’s important to me.

Two things happen.

One, I’ve hit to an area that is not super close to my buddies and it takes me forever to actually take my shot. In fact, I really CAN’T - I can’t take a full backswing, or my lie (how the ball is on the ground/sand) is so weird I can’t figure out how to set up for a swing, etc. I’m stuck and trying to figure out what to do - for way, way too long. (It turns out this dream is hardly unique, though many others have this as an issue on the tee box, which is even weirder. Yay for all us golfers being weirdos.)

The second thing is that because I’m way behind my group, I can’t catch up. I can’t find the next tee (sometimes there’s like an entire office building in the way that I get caught up in, sometimes I’m just on the wrong tee entirely). And much like the hallway in Poltergeist, no matter how much forward progress I make, I just never, ever catch up.

These are both classic stress dreams. And it makes me furious when I wake up from it. Because golf is not supposed to be stressful. Infuriating, frustrating and maddening? Sure. But not stressful.

Apparently, as noted above, these are fairly common dreams for a golfer so I guess it’s not worth making a fuss about. And I’m sure if I wasn’t having these stress dreams, they’d be replaced with some about travel, or I’d be back in school, or something much worse. If I have to be stressed out, I guess a golf course isn’t the worst spot to do it - even if it’s only in my subconscious.