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Golf Day Out - The Electric Trolley Incident
I had a bad back. Well, not so much of a bad back as a week before, but enough to make me very cautious of the 27 holes I'd committed to play for the team in our annual golf tournament.
Now I don't play golf at all regularly and I had not played for some time. Anyway, having driven to the course and dragged my club bag over to the golf shop, I was in need of a trolley for the day.
"Sorry, all the trolleys have gone," came the reply. "although there is an electric one here somewhere but it will cost you a fiver." Thinking it was well worth it to save my day, I paid up and the battery went on charge whilst I had a coffee before the first tee.
It was a cool morning with a threat of rain as I practiced a few swings awaiting our turn on the tee half an hour later. I made the normal apologies to my team-mates with regard to my expected low standard of play and, following my colleagues, made a careful drive with a 3-wood which achieved a reasonably good distance for once. Off we went down the fairway, the electric trolley gently whirring away. It had a rotating knob alongside the handle, facilitating the regulation of its speed with the thumb of the same hand used for steering. Very useful it was too - it trundled along in front of me and I quickly mastered the speed so as to keep it nicely under my hand at a steady walk. This kept me free of any pain normally associated with twisting the body somewhat in order to drag a normal trolley behind me, and we made it through the morning's nine to a jolly meal with a couple of pints in the clubhouse.
Having charged the battery again just to be safe for the afternoon's 18 holes, we were progressing nicely through to the 13th hole when I got a bit cocky. I was not only quite hot by then as the threatened rain had not come and now the sun was quite strong, but getting rather tired and dishevelled. So, as the trolley was self-powered I thought it would be safe to let go of it momentarily whilst I stood a second or two to tuck in my shirt on the walk up the fairway. This being accomplished, I then endeavoured to catch up the few yards to the trolley. However, I was more tired and my back was more stiff than I realised and I found I just could not go fast enough to make up the distance. Two of my colleagues had hired a buggy for the afternoon and had shot off to where their longer drives had landed up ahead, and my other team-mate was walking several yards ahead of me on the opposite side. I was doing my best to catch the trolley but it was still gaining on me when it hit a small bump and gradually fell backwards, beginning to issue forth a number of clubs from the top of the bag as it continued on its way. I now had to collect the clubs as well as try to catch the thing, and my friend came running over to assist with the pick-up as more and more clubs were spewed from the run-away. Even he had no chance of stopping it as it had careered off to the left-hand side of the fairway and was heading out of bounds. I was having nightmares about its possible lemming-like descent into a lake, when it was finally fortunate enough to hit a tree dead-on with one wheel on each side. This enabled me to eventually make up my ground to the trolley, which was still determinedly attempting to continue on its path - wheels churning up the dirt, until I was able to turn off the speed control. It had disposed of every single golf club!
About the Author: Will Hook is an occasional golfer in the UK keen on keeping the game accessible to all, and an originator of golfclubsales.co.uk. Place your FREE adverts to buy or sell your golf clubs and equipment in the UK.
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