A golf score card turned up today, wedged in the bottom of an ancient bag of clubs that I was cleaning out for someone else in the family. The card is yellowed with the passage of time and comes from the Tenison Memorial Municipal Golf Course (West) near the city of Dallas, Texas. It records a 10-hole game among "Brad", "Dick", and "Ken" in which the players were over par by 24, 22, and 18 strokes respectively.

On the front of this dirty, stained scorecard is the thoughtful admonition:

"The game ceases to be golf when rules are broken at pleasure."

The Tenison Municipal Golf Course offers an excellent opportunity for physical exercise and recreation, but no less an opportunity for the practice of self-control and self-government. The measure of self-control and self-government displayed by patrons of the course is the measure of excellence to be found in the service which the course offers.

(cf. SelfReliance (16 Jun 1999), RuleOne (16 Jun 2005), ...)

TopicLife - TopicRecreation - TopicPersonalHistory - 2005-07-31

(correlates: NameThatTune, FourHoursDaily, GoWords, ...)