Four years ago, Taylor Swift tried to ruin my life.
She and another young blond girl conspired to derail my epic putt-putt golf match against my friend Mike, handing him a victory that rightly should have been mine.
Fortunately, you can’t keep me down for long, and Mike and I returned last night to Down Under Golf, the Australian-themed course that has long been our favorite. Fueled by cheeseburgers and waffle fry nachos (tortilla chips are so 2013), we played a four-round, 72-hole match that included a visit from some local wildlife:
Rabbits of Ocean City are very friendly pic.twitter.com/yg1lbnd2hy
— Chris Hannas (@cjhannas) September 17, 2014
As great as this picture is, we actually missed capturing the best moment. For a solid minute the little guy was chillin three inches from me. Next time we’ll be less in the moment and do the right thing for social media.
The putt-putt action did not start off well for me. The first three rounds ended like this:
Round 1 — Carolina blue ball — Down 3 strokes
Round 2 — Neon yellow ball — Down 4 strokes
Round 3 — Green ball — Down 6 strokes
The black ball disappeared into whatever unknown underground repository that collects such things on the 18th hole and Mike asked if I wanted to go again. I said I wasn’t going down without a fight.
I grabbed a lucky black ball and strode heroically back to the first hole.
“I’m going to make up these six strokes…and then win by three,” I said. He didn’t seem very concerned. Until of course I started knocking down shots and his pink ball betrayed him again and again.
On the ninth hole, I notched a hole-in-one, and when Mike got a two, my six-stroke comeback was complete. All tied up with nine to play.
Then I got a hole-in-one on the next hole too. Mike was pretty concerned.
We headed to the 17th hole with me ahead by two strokes. I won that one, and when we tied on the 18th, my prediction was complete: a six-stroke deficit made up and a three-stroke advantage gained.
Mike’s reaction was pretty much this:
Fortunately for him, today we’re playing real golf, and there’s pretty much no chance I’ll be beating him there. Unless of course, Sage is there.