In 1957, Bing Crosby crooned a song called “Straight Down the Middle”, and while we don’t always go straight down the middle, our Monday golf group, mostly composed of Nature Trail residents, has picked that elusive motto to describe our group.  We started with two retired guys, one from Pensacola (who later moved to Nature Trail} and one from Milton, neither of whom had hardly ever played golf before.  After playing at Tanglewood until both of us were close to breaking 100, we then branched out, taking on new playing partners and laying waste to other golf courses. We rotate between various courses each week, which gives us a chance to play courses of various difficulties. Guys have come and gone to our group, but we now have twelve regular members, with ten of the twelve living in Nature Trail.

 

Our rules are pretty simple. We respond promptly when asked if we will play the next Monday.  We have a pretty liberal use of “mulligans” and “gimmes”.  We don’t get too touchy about the more arcane rules, such as moving the ball to a better location.  We don’t bet on our games, and if someone loses track of his score on a hole, we don’t say anything unless asked.  We don’t count higher than triple bogies on any hole. Most important, we control our tempers and don’t throw clubs.  We allow almost anything else. We have dropped a few guys from the group who can’t follow the above rules, but with these rules, there isn’t much left except to have a good time.

 

The best part of our group is the group itself.  It doesn’t take long for a new member of the group to blend in and become fast friends with the other guys. While our backgrounds are pretty mixed, we all like each other. Usually, most of us gather after a round and have a cool drink and maybe something to eat with our friends. These after-golf meetings are also good for either embellishing our talents or lamenting our lack thereof.

 

As you can imagine, almost all of the group are retired.  Our ages range from 50’s to 70’s but we have had an occasional over 80 and sometimes we even put up with teenagers or twenty-somethings. These are generally children, grandchildren or out-of-town guests.  

 

We are a men-only group {sorry if that sounds sexist}, but female or mixed groups could be arranged.  We really don’t have room for new members at present, but we would encourage anyone else to start such a group.  It won’t be long until you are all “Straight Down the Middle."  Since our group is older, it is not unusual to have someone going to a doctor or traveling, so we often do have room for guests.  Good guys can text their names and phone numbers to 850-291-1178 and we will do our best to get you in.