Human targets

For the past month of so, I’ve been working on improving my golf game by hitting whiffle balls in the front yard.  The goal has been to hit the ball as close as possible to my daughter without actually smacking her in the head or torso.

A raising of the stakes, if you will.  Since golf tends to be a game of pressure-packed shots from difficult positions, I thought I’d create a little pressure of my own. 

And so far, I’ve done very well, bouncing very few balls off her body and none off her head. 

This morning a friend brought her two sons over to play in the backyard, and I quickly transformed the “try not to hit the baby” game into the “try my best to nail a boy with the ball” game.

While hitting a moving target is not a required skill on the golf course, it sure was fun, and I actually think it helped my short game a lot.  Rather than simply lofting balls around Clara, I had to hit low line drives, high, over the deck bombs, and everything in between in order to have any chance at hitting those boys.  

Being four-year old twins, they still made for small targets.

The boys have gone home and I’m supposed to revising my manuscript, but I find myself hoping that they come over again soon.  Golf has always been fun, but today it was especially so.