New things happen to me on the golf course all the time.  At least, the few and far between times I play.

The nature of my game is such that I often end up with interesting shots that someone on the PGA Tour never gets to encounter.  They include decisions like, should I try to go under this first tree and over the second one, or shoot a little to the right and skip it as far down the cart path as possible?

A few weeks ago I played two rounds with roommate MR, who has beaten me each and every single time we’ve played going all the way back to high school.  And that’s fine.  I have a great time whether I shoot 92 or 104.

But in our second round, something magical happened:

I won!  I should note that under our long-time scoring system, we do not assess penalty shots for lost balls.  If we did, I would have lost by roughly six strokes.

So how did this happen?  Did I magically get better at golf by not playing all year?  No.  Sage happened.

As our foursome (with three lefties!) came up to the tee box on the par 3 third hole, a young woman walked toward our carts.  I was thinking about which club to hit and thus didn’t take in the whole situation.  I figured she was the beer cart lady, and told her we were fine for now.

Then she started talking.  Very quickly.  She mentioned a hole-in-one challenge that cost $10, earned you a free vacation if you made it and a golf magazine subscription if you didn’t.  Your choice whether to bring her on the trip.  We all declined.

As we stepped up to the tee box itself, she mentioned that one of her things is to hug everyone she meets.  She said we had the option of cashing in this hug before or after we took our shot.  I opted for the pre-shot hug, hoping that I could harness some positive energy into a solid swing.

Hug.  Swing.  Ball eight feet from the whole.  Par.

Forget more practice or a functioning five iron (which I broke at this same course six years ago).  All my golf game needed was a hug from a pretty girl.  #SageHugs.