I’ll admit, we were intimidated.
My son and I had never golfed in our lives, and we were about to shoot 9 holes on the Haig Point golf course. Let’s just say we were a little out of our element. Horseback riding? Sure thing. Exploring the island by golf cart? You betcha. But playing golf surrounded by people who knew what they were doing? Well…
Jonathan wanted to back out. He’s not as brave as I. He was worried about humiliating himself, about being in other golfers’ way, about losing every freaking ball given to us (at that time, we didn’t even know you had to pay for them.). So I did what any good mother would do: I took him to the distillery and told him to drink up!
It’s amazing what a drink or two can do to make you not care so much anymore. Plus, we got to meet the owners of the distillery, and that really was fun. He is a former pharmacist who taught us something we never knew before: There are no FDA requirements for liquor. That means Joe Schmoe down the street can whip some up in a dirty jar, bottle it, and sell it to you, just as long as he purchases a liquor license.
Kinda scary, right? He said he attended a trade show where another distiller had combined ingredients that could actually kill people. He had no idea, and no one had tested his product to make sure it was safe.
I felt much safer knowing that my drink was made by a pharmacist. Jonathan liked it so much, he bought a bottle of whiskey to take home. And I must say, it really did take the edge off of the golf trepidation.
We got out there, and we had fun. One couple played through, which was just fine with us, and we laughed and searched for all our missed balls. We started with 24, ended with 3. And I have absolutely no idea what our score was. But we finally golfed, and on one of the most beautiful courses I’ve ever seen.
