Golfing happily sober was something I thought I’d never do. But here I am to tell the story that I hope will inspire you!
In order to play golf in Singapore, which is a very crowded island, and without paying unbelievable prices, I catch a ferry over to Indonesia. The golf club in Indonesia arranges everything; the ferry, the shuttle bus, the transport of your clubs. This is a 40-minute each-way trip and well worth it. The courses are absolutely gorgeous.
I made the trip yesterday with a friend I often play with. It is the first time that I’ve made the trip with the intent of playing golf sober. After we finished our game, as we were sitting around in the clubhouse, my friend decided that post-game beer and scotch drinking were in order. So out comes the hip flask of single malt and it gets immediately consumed. Then he starts lining up the Tiger Beers.
Everything is going fine for a while. There is nothing unusual in his behavior. This is our routine. Then it all changed. It changed because I was watching him do his after-golf drinking, stone-cold sober. His IQ dropped substantially along with his clarity of thought and then his ability to articulate thoughts rationally. He began slurring words, and then the chip formed on his shoulder.
On the Ferry back home he started taking offense at the other ferry trip passengers (they really hadn’t done even the slightest thing wrong). Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that he had to get 3 beers for the ferry trip to keep the good times rolling. It really was not a pretty sight to see. And the worst thing of the lot is that about 4 months ago I would have been going one-for-one with him and egging him on with the alcohol flow.
Alcohol gives you an enjoyable rush which lasts about 45-60 minutes. It also requires you (well me at least and my mate as well) to continue drinking. After those 60 minutes are up the consequences of your actions start to manifest themselves and they are not in the least bit attractive.
As humans, we are constantly changing, mentally as well as physically. We are today an accumulation of our past experiences. Tomorrow we will have updated those experiences and will be someone very slightly different, with the exclusion of a catastrophic event that has the potential to change us substantially. So over time the ability for self-reinvention gradually sets in.
Now I figure this, if our past experience includes being a loud, foul-mouthed, obnoxious, self-important, ignorant, reactionary arse then is it any wonder that our sense of well-being is damaged by alcohol and we feel terrible the next day (this is excluding the hangover, I am talking about the psychological disturbance of the whole thing). And then conversely when we stop drinking we settle into becoming a more balanced and holistic person.
I’ll take option #2!
Memo to the Wine Witch: Lady you are screwed, just forget it, you are wasting your time and energy on me. I would rather golf sober!
More from Boozemusings
Alcohol and Exercise-Battling Diminishing Returns
Gray Area Drinking- The Truth About How Alcohol Damages Your Brain
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