＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
I started playing golf when I was in my 30s, but since I have never had any talent for sports in general, including golf, and I also dislike practicing, I could not easily break the 100 barrier. However, when I was an avid golfer and went to the driving range once or twice a month for rounds, I was able to get my rounds in the 90s, but now I am back to where I started.
By the way, it is said that golf is a sport that reflects one’s personality. I would like to share with you some interesting stories related to this.
１．The Beginner’s “OK” Misconception
When I first started playing golf, a colleague of mine at work, who was also a golf beginner like me, once received an “OK” for missing a putt and did not add the “OK” to his stroke count.
He had no bad intentions at all and mistakenly thought that he got the extra OK because he was a beginner. So he misunderstood the “OK for omitting the cup-in” to speed up the progress of play.
２．Professional Golfers “Cheating”
A pro golfer, Y (now a senior pro), once kicked a ball with his foot and moved it to a good lie. I have heard a story that Teruo Sugihara, watching from behind, warned him, “I can see it perfectly.
There is one more misconduct that I read about in a weekly magazine. In another game, he took a spare ball out of his own pocket for the first shot that turned out to be OB, said that he had found it, and continued to play the ball as safe. However, the house caddie had followed the ball with his own eyes and was clearly convinced that it was OB. So, after the game was over and the sun had set, he took a flashlight and searched all over the rough near the OB zone where the ball fell, and found Pro Y’s ball out in the OB zone. I don’t recall what the ruling was on this cheating. Or perhaps it was ruled out of the question because the results were not in any way related to the championship.
３．The President’s Golf
I remember reading a book titled “The President’s Golf”. I don’t remember the details of the book, but I remember that it said “If you hit the green, you get a par,” or “Even if you hit the first shot OB, you can pretend it didn’t happen and it doesn’t count. The fudging of scores by President Clinton and President Nixon was particularly egregious (i.e., they were liars). I don’t know if it was a result of this or not, but Clinton was tried for impeachment (although he was not removed from office), and Nixon resigned after being driven to the verge of an “impeachment trial”.
In Japan, golf played by a one-man president may be similar. I have heard a rumor that a certain president would rush to the green as soon as his ball hit the green, kick his own ball on the green toward the cup, or intentionally drop his companion’s ball on the green into the bunker.
It seems that the golf of past presidents of the United States has been similar or the same. There was a specific rumor about the current President Trump in an article on the Internet.
According to the book “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump,” by Rick Reilly, a former reporter for Sports Illustrated magazine in the United States, President Trump cheats a lot during play! …
Brian Marsal, a board member of a major tournament, shared the following story.
“Regarding the other two accompanying players, the president said, ‘They’re cheating. Me? Of course I do. You and I have to beat them. So you can cheat, too. The president thinks everyone cheats. And he doesn’t think his is much of a cheat.”
It’s a daily occurrence for President Trump to kick a ball in the rough and put it in the fairway. His caddies “look the other way,” but behind his back he calls the president “Pele” (the king of soccer).
When President Trump played with Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, and veteran Brad Faxon early in his presidency, he hit both his second and third shots into the water and then hit the green from where he originally wanted to hit it, but after seeing Tiger Woods make birdie But when he saw Tiger Woods make birdie, he declared “par” while actually leaving a 6-meter putt for the seventh shot. Faxon “had to laugh. He said Trump said all the putts were “conseeded” and he picked them up without cupping them in.
It seems that President Trump’s “human nature” is really showing. I hope President Trump isn’t forced into an “impeachment trial” either…