Angry Golfers

I played with an angry golfer yesterday.

Carl recently had been taken in an Arizona real estate scam in which he had lost $250,000. As he told the story, the hustle involved half-a-dozen guys, one of whom was his “best friend.” The first guy had purchased some worthless desert for $30,000. The next bought the land from the first for $50,000. The third bought out the second for $100,000 and so on. Each man, when he sold out, shared the difference in profit with the ones who came before.

Carl, on the end of the deal, was left holding the bag for $250,000. He hadn’t realized that the previous six were in on it. He was convinced by his “best friend” that the rapid rise in price was the result of a hot real estate market.

So now he owns a dozen acres of sand, cacti and gila monsters.

“I couldn’t even build a golf course there,” he said.

But that wasn’t why Carl was angry.

It seems that on the trip to Arizona to complete the land purchase, the same “best friend” had given him a swing tip.

“You need to hit a cut shot,” the friend had told him, and then demonstrated how. Carl tried it, and started spraying his shots. He then tried to go back to his old swing, but couldn’t.

Now, a month later, Carl still was shanking the ball. In the nine holes I played with him, I could tell that he once had been a good player. He was a lights out putter, and had a stellar short game. He hit drives that went nearly 300 yards, and nine irons that went 150.

But his shots were flying in random directions.

“I can make more money,” he said. “But that (insert twelve letter word here) ruined my swing.”

It’s nice that he has the whole thing in perspective.