End of Season Traditions

Now that winter is looming over our heads here in Michigan, I've gone through my first end of the golfing season depression. I wasn't really into golf in my teenage years, going out only once or twice a year with my dad, uncle, and grandpa. I would shoot pretty poorly but I had an occasional good shot or two that made me say I'd always keep going.

Well, this year I began playing on a regular basis. Every opportunity I could, I would go play. And at first, I was bad. I was quite bad actually. My first round of the season was with a friend of mine from junior high and high school named Mike. Mike and I played a course called the Myth, which isn't the best course for a beginning golfer. There are woods everywhere on this course and several forced carries that really lost me a lot of balls. I shot a 124.

But, I became hooked after that round and I played a lot this year. I dropped my average into the 90s, usually around a 94-96, and finished my last round of the year with an outstanding 84.

When it was all said and done, I took my bag from my trunk and set it in the living room. Now what? Here's where my first end of the year traditions took place. I emptied out everything from the bag. Golf balls all went into a tub so that I could clean them and re-mark them before spring (I have yet to finish this, but I've done about half of the balls). My glove, ball mark, golf GPS, all that good stuff, was deemed okay to go back in the bag. My clubs, were all removed and cleaned so carefully and meticulously my girlfriend was so mad when she saw all the grass and dirt powdering the kitchen sink.

But I was just so at peace when I was doing it that I really didn't mind cleaning everything up after. I soaked the clubs in some warm, soapy water for about five minutes, took an old tooth brush that I had saved just for this occasion, and a tack and I cleaned up the faces and backs and every individual groove on every club. When I had finished cleaning and drying off all of them, I put them back in the bag and put it back in the closet, feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride. But also, of course, a sense of sadness knowing that I wouldn't get to use my new friends for quite some time.

So, does anyone else have any good golf traditions for the end of season?