My favorite golf tradition is fun — and sometimes unsafe. Now I want to hear yours!
The author's nephew last year.
Nick Piastowski
The day was nearing. I’d been looking forward to it, but I was nervous, too. Would he still be in? Teenagers can be a fickle bunch.
So about a month ago, I texted my 15-year-old nephew.
“How much are you looking forward to hitting golf balls in minus-25-degree weather again? New tradition.”
“Very much.”
“Should we play nine holes in minus-25?”
“Yes we should.”
“36 holes?”
“I was thinking more like 72.”
“Should we wear shorts this time?”
“That’s smart.”
Our exchanges often go like that, a who-can-smart-ass-the-other kinda vibe. But the key takeaway was that my nephew Mason wanted to continue what I believe was my best golf experience of 2022, a moment so memorable that I wanted to do it again. To not go one and done.
I wanted it to attain the lofty status of tradition.
Golf is full of ’em, of course. Thanks to Jim Nantz, we know that the Masters is one unlike any other. But there are your annual buddies trips. And your rounds of golf where you must chug a beer. And your events where you dress oddly. And your tournaments where the gang’s all there. On and on. Things so good that you keep coming back to them — because you know they’ll deliver the goods again. And at the bottom of this piece, I have a question about all that. But last year, I had another:
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How the heck do you entertain a 14-year-old?
When it’s a crisp minus-25? Which is 50 degrees below freezing. And a helluva long way from OK.
Hmm. Fourteen is about the age where the moms and dads and aunts and uncles aren’t cool to be in the picture anymore. Doors become closed. Conversations turn one-sided, unless you count grunts and mumbles. Car rides are permitted, but only under a strict no-questions-asked policy. And we, the olds, get it, because we’d been youngs once, too. Wild, right? And now, for me, the weather wasn’t doing any favors, either. But we all know the secret to breaking through. We enjoyed it when we were kids.
An adulting stop. A maturity halt.
So I had a question:
Want to play golf?
One ball. One club. The first hole at the course up the street. Run out of the car. You hit. I hit. Run back to the car. Freeze throughout. Hot chocolate afterward.
Mason laughed. I had his interest. We wouldn’t tell his mom — my sister — until it was over and done, or when the kid and I got frostbite, whatever came first.
So off we went. My best golf experience of 2022 took about a minute.
Which you can watch below, across five parts (click the white circle on the right to scroll):
But here’s the best part!
On Thursday, Dec. 21, at around 4 p.m., at an disclosed golf course in southwestern Wisconsin, with temps around 25 degrees this time, we did it again.
Which you can watch below, again across five parts (click the white circle on the right to scroll):
And hopefully we do it again and again. And maybe his kids will join one day. And maybe his kids’ kids. A tradition! It’s something him and I share, and it’s great and wonderful and sappy and whatever.
Which got me to thinking:
What are yours? What’s your favorite regular golf thing you do? What’s your golf tradition? Let me hear about it! Email me at nick.piastowski@golf.com, or send me a DM @nickpia on the site formerly known as Twitter. I’m really curious to know.
Shoot, I may even ask to join. And write about it in this space next year.
After I get done with my tradition.
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