Golf is sometimes a game of inches...or in this case, less than inch.   During yesterday's golf outing to benefit WAGS (The Wisconsin Academy for Graduate Service Dogs  www.wags.net ),  I had one of those shots that was exciting, yet very frustrating.  

We were about 90 yards out from the 18th green, and our foursome (my son, his friend, and my friend) desperately needed an eagle (two under par) on the hole.   I decided (as if I actually knew what I was doing)  to use my nine iron, and have the ball land at the front edge of the green and roll up to the hole for that eagle.  That's exactly what it did....except that the ball stopped agonizingly close to the edge of the cup.  In fact, it couldn't have been any closer without falling in.....less than an inch, a quarter of a turn of the ball, a whisker, a blade of grass, a puff of wind, etc.  from going in.  Just look at the pictures.

(Photos by Zack Wachowiak)

We stared at it, and waited near the hole as if we could will it into the cup through telepathy.    No such luck!  Numerous jets had

been flying over us all day, but do you think one could fly over at that moment, rattling the green enough to knock the ball in?  No dice.  

This was the second most exciting shot of my golf "career", if you can call it that.  (I'm lucky to break 100 in 18 holes, so I'm a bit of a duffer).   Getting a hole in one last year during another outing will always rank #1 for me.   What's so frustrating is  these memorable shots are few and far between.   The ones I'd like to forget are far more common.