You know that old saying "no one can screw up a free lunch? Well...
As public course players, 3 friends and I, many years ago as young men single and carefree, would play a different 18 hole course every Sunday. Golf was not as popular then. Most venues didn't require require a tee time. Sometimes we just got in the car and found a place, which was the case on this day.
We pulled into the parking lot, walked into the pro shop, paid our fee and went right to the first tee. Odd, we thought, that there was no wait on a spectacular springtime Sunday.Unbeknownst to us, we walked into the middle of a nine hole tournament.How and why we were allowed to pay a fee when the course was booked for an outing, is inexplicable. Perhaps the head pro was on a coffee break. Who knows. Anyway, after 9 we were a little hungry. We walked in to get a hot dog and a Coke, and there was this huge spread. "Help yourselves" we heard from a waiter. We didn't need coaxing. This was a feast!Roast beef, turkey, ham, strawberry shortcake etc.After 20 minutes or so, the waiter came over and said how's the food? Great I said, but we need to get going, we've got another nine to play. "Another nine, this is a nine hole tournament, said the waiter.Then it dawned on him,we were public course players, and had nothing to do with the tournament.My friends looked irritated at the comment. I didn't understand why until I heard the waiter yell to the head pro "hey Bill, we've got a few hungry pubbies (public players) here". Needless to say, we never played the back nine.
"Well Mike, you've done the impossible....you screwed up a free lunch!"
It was a long car ride home.