| In the 1970s while living in Lagos, Nigeria, I took six golf lessons
at a beautiful golf course established by British ex-patriots. There was
a bit of a problem with stray cows. It is, in fact, possible to kill a
cow with a golf ball travelling at the right speed and trajectory. And
forget about retrieving your golf balls from the brush.....even brandishing
a five-iron you wouldn't want to tangle with a 10 foot snake as thick as
your leg.
The biggest problem was that the country was under military
rule and the golf course doubled intermittently as a military training
ground. It was not unusual to be walking to the next hole and have a whole
platoon of soldiers carrying loaded weapons run back and forth across
the course. Sometimes we would all be running in every
direction. The up-side of it was that since there were no golf carts to be
had in those days, running with a golf bag provided a good workout. The
down-side was that if you couldn't make it off the green and ditched the
bag, it was finders-keepers as far the soldiers were concerned.
People who don't like golf often describe it as boring. People who do like
it often describe it as serene. I found it utterly harrowing.
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