Hampton & Rabbit: Zen Golf

Hamish frisbees throw his Ray-Bans off and squeezes his eyes like Henry Fonda in dry western desert as he looks outside to the scene of Rabbit kneeling over his surfboard and framed by the sand dunes.

Alexa took that as a prompt. She opens a kitchen drawer and flips him a golf ball which having to react quickly, Hamish catches back-handed, first baser style. As he twists the ball in his hand, he sees the inscription, “Pebble Beach Pro-Am 2018”.

Hamish tells her, “Not what I was hoping for, but it will do.”

Alexa replies, “Kind of like your swing?”

“Kind of like my assistant,” He retorts.

Alexa kicks back, “Oh, that was well played!”

Hamish responds, “Ditto”

Alexa is now holding a driver in each hand, one arm stretched out for him to grab and the other held back. A reserve.

Hamish takes the one she is handing to him, a non-conforming Japanese PRGR Super Egg Driver. They don’t allow play with that club at Shinnecock Hills which is why Hamish does not play at Shinnecock Hills.

Now Alexa is having fun with his mocking her as she scurries ahead of him to the patio, slides open one wing of door and holds her arm out, pointing the way forward while she bends over to a short bow.

Hamish quietly utters, “Easy easy”, as he passes her while rolling his eyes.

Alexa replies, “Too easy, sir,” as she tosses Hamish a tee and then steps into a slither of shadow in the front of the house.

Hamish places the ball on the tee in the grass inches away from a path that runs across their fence-line above the grasses and dunes before the beach and Atlantic Ocean.

Now a ritual: Hamish quietens his thoughts and the ambient sounds of wave on water and focuses on his interconnectedness to the ball and its intended trajectory.

This zen-state last for no time before a wild thought manages to break in, “A remake of Enter the Dragon?”

Dashed that he cannot seem to hold a meditation, he tells himself that it is only a swing and just like that the ball is flying soothingly straight over the break.

Rabbit calls out to him, “Dad, I like the sound of your ‘ping’.”

Hamish re-twists toward him calling back, “Thanks, I thought it was more of a ‘whack’.”

As he returns to some interim business in the house, Hamish points his driver toward Rabbit and continues, “Hey Rabbit, wait there for me, I’ll be right back.”