Local Golf Report: It was a golf season like no other

It's that time of year, and I really can't believe it. It's time to put From Tee to Green to sleep for what figures to be a long, and perhaps even depressing winter without the game of golf. More on that in a minute, though.

First, this last column has some happy news. Congrats goes out to Mark Kato who had a hole-in-one last week at Prairie Farms Golf Course. Kato aced the par-3 13th hole from 179 yards out. Good job Marky.

Next, before I say a fond farewell for this golf season, a few thank-yous. First, to the league secretaries, Jeremy Jensen, Justin Hawley and Kelsey Ward. Thanks for getting me the info I request each and every week. Without it, it wouldn't be much of a column. Next, thank you to all the folks who safely ran local golf tournaments this summer. It's because of all of your hard work, and your willingness to adapt to what needed to be done to operate during this pandemic that we were able to have plenty of great golf tournaments around Havre this summer without incident, as far as I know anyway.

And lastly, thank you to our two Havre golf courses. Thank you to Rob Gomke and Beaver Creek Golf Course. Thank you to Greg and Gary Baltrusch and Doug Sheppard and the gang at Prairie Farms. Thank you not only for giving us once again, two awesome golf courses to play on every year, but also thank you for working so hard during this crazy time in our lives to keep golf going, and to keep all of us who love the sport safe while we played. Your hard work is not lost on this guy.

So with that, another golf season has come and gone, at least as it pertains to this column anyway. Normally, this is the part of my final column where I lament about the long winter ahead, but I'm going to steer clear of that this time. Instead, I'm going to quickly reminisce.

I think, right now, ti's important to look back on this past golf season for what it was, and that is, for most of us, it was that normalcy we were looking for. Golf, yes, the game of golf gave us all a break from the overwhelming stress of simply trying to navigate the coronavirus pandemic. In some ways, golf kept me completely sane. And I'll admit, I don't know where I'd be right now, from a mental health state anyway, if I haddn't had golf as a distraction for the last nearly six, going on seventh months.

Yes, with social distancing the new norm, golf would help connect us. It did me. For example, when the pandemic really got cooking, I didn't see my friends. I took the stay at home order dead serious, and that's what I did. So I can vividly remember the first day I decided to play golf with my friends. For the first few weeks after courses opened, I stayed by myself on the course, but eventually, it was time to go back to golfing with my buddies, and I won't forget that first day in May when I golfed with Scott and Kerl and Mike. It was kind of like starting all over.

That's what golf did, though, it safely brought us back together in a time when being together has been pretty damn difficult. Golf was therapeutic, it was a source of fun and a source of normal in a time that, for so many of us, is anything but.

In fact, I'd say, there hasn't been a more important recreational golf season than the golf season of 2020. I don't think it's even close.

Now, though, it's almost over, and I will say as good as this season was, I don't want to go through it again. I don't want to be playing golf next April, because that would mean I'm not coaching tennis for the second straight spring. I don't want to have to social distance on the course, or avoid touching ball washers, etc, etc. No, as much as I got used to the new norms of golf, I'll be perfectly happy to go back to the way golf was before The Rona.

So, with that in mind, I want to wish everybody a healthy and safe fall and winter to come. Let's beat this pandemic so when our golf season emerges from its long slumber, we don't have to worry or wonder anymore. Golf can still be an escape for us, but it can go back to being an escape that doesn't include a global pandemic. So goodbye for now, take care of each other, and we'll see you on the courses next spring.