But no one was there.  Not a witness to behold the event. So now I can finally answer the question: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Surprisingly, NO.

It looked beautiful as it was sailing toward its target.  I saw it roll up on the green but then it rolled out of view. As I walked to the green, I thought, “well there must be a little ridge there at the front”.  As I got closer I still saw no ball on the green.  I was silent.   I walked up to the flag.  There was my Callaway resting at the back of the hole.  A beautiful sight honored in silence.

Eagle Lake Golf Course #3 160 yards

(See the video clip)

You’ll just have to wonder what the diminishing snowman was saying about it all.

The background:
The American Fork River (which would be called a creek, where I come
from) is channelled through American Fork, and through the length of
our Tri-Cities golf course. The spring runoff has been very high,
and two weeks ago I could see that the river was within 18 inches of
overflowing its banks along the 15th fairway. In fact a small
section of riverbank did erode and cave in, but did not amount to much
damage to the course. For a stretch of about 500 yards, the river is
channelled through a 6-foot culvert under the 10th, 1st, and 5th
fairways. My concern has been that debries, a fallen tree, or
whatever might get lodged in that culvert and the damming would wash
out some of the course. And two weeks ago the situation was obviously
critical because that culvert was running with a tremendous force of
water at a level above its midpoint.

It isn’t alway so. Typically, in the summer the stream is diverted to
irrigation canals, and the river bed is dry. Just to the north of the
tenth fairway at the inlet to the culvert the river widens out and a
cart path goes down through the riverbed for a shortcut back to the
club house. Not now! That cart path is under 2 to 3 feet of fast
flowing river.

Wade told me this surprising tale. About two weeks ago, while the
river was at its highest, a kid driving a golf cart, who obviously had
less than normal intelligence, thought that he’d drive the cart
through the river, crossing just north of the culvert inlet. The
good news is that both the kid and the golf course survived. The
golfcart fared somewhat worse.

As the story was told when the cart got too deep into the river, the
front was grabbed by the force of the water and sent toward the
culvert. At that point a bit of intelligence appeared to surface in
the driver, as he jumped from the cart and into the river. The cart
proceeded into the culvert where its roof was ripped off.
Miraculously, the cart was propelled the entire length of the culvert
without becoming lodged. The battered cart was extracted from the
river south of the fifth fairway by the golf course’s largest tractor
and a hefty chain.

I’d bet the cart driver won’t be trying to ford rivers with a golf
cart a second time.

What pair will you draw? The answer can determine how much you enjoy the game. Sunday, Terri and I were paired up with a fun couple, Norm and Carma King. As the play progressed, we learned tidbits of their thoughts on golf, and about their lives. They’ve been married for 40 years and golfing together for 6 years. I enjoyed the playful banter between them, and the easy way in which they played the game.

Number 6 was a challenging hole. It had no fairway. Just a tee box, a big pond, and a green. OK to be fair, the green had a 10 yard finge, but I didn’t notice. I only noticed that there was a lot of water, and the tee shot was 169 yards. Norm noticed too. He said, “This is tough. I don’t have a club that does 169.” Tough? Carma offered no compassion. She said, “Norm, why don’t you use the club that does 170?”

I guess that’s what 40 years of marriage will get you. Good counsel from your wife.