Living The Golf Life

I recently received in the mail Golf Life’s 2009 “Definitive Guide To the Golf Life” yearbook.

It left me depressed. From what I can gather from the articles in the magazine, living the “golf life” is going to require a substantial hike in my paltry teacher’s salary. Here’s just a small selection of the things Golfweek thinks I’m going to need:

* $80 polo shirts from a a variety of high tech and exotic fabrics

* $190 adidas sunglasses
* $33,000 Rolex Yacht Master II watch
* $2,000 Davidoff desktop humidor
* $7,000 Viking Outdoor Grill
* $14,000 700 square foot artificial putting green
* $40,000 indoor golf simulator
* $2,000 Klipsich Icon XF-48 speakers for your (presumably even more expensive) stereo system
* $350,000 Maybach 52 automobile
* fractional ownership in a corporate jet at some unspecified price

and

* a million dollar home on one of their recommended residential course

My version of the golf life is somewhat different. In The GolfBlogger’s world, it’s:

* $20 golf shirts from T.J Maxx. (Sometimes I even get lucky and find a big name brand. I have scored Nicklaus, Norman and Bobby Jones shirts, for example.)
* $20 sunglasses from REI
* a $15 plastic Timex.
* No humidor needed. Mrs. GolfBlogger wouldn’t allow smoking.
* $200 Weber propane grill
* $0.50 in gas to go to the local course’s practice putting green
* $10 copy of last year’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour computer game.
* $100 speakers to go with my 18 year old stereo system, which is hooked to my 17 year old 27 inch television.
* $25,000 Subaru Forester
* a plane trip once every three years to somewhere interesting. Last time I went to Torrey Pines to play.
* trips to courses where I can look at million dollar homes. I’ve recently played two of the recommended courses on Golf World’s list: Forest Dunes and Tullymore.

I suspect there are a lot more like me than there are of “them.”