The Myrtle Experience
In the beginning (1991), the BGA began our annual trek to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We decided to go in January because it broke up the winter and, equally importantly, it was cheap. Very cheap. And since any course we play at any time of the year will produce bad scores, we might as well play bad golf cheaply. In fact, our cost per stroke was embarrassingly low.
We found that our bodies couldn’t stand the stress of so much fun. Mr. Fifteen ruptured an arm muscle and eventually needed surgery; The Commish went down like he was shot and got to ride with an flag designating he was an invalid because he couldn’t walk, and Mr. Four Skin's back hurt so much he eventually needed surgery. But, on the bright side, we discovered that a few Aleve tablets let us play all 171 holes—except for Mr. Fifteen who had to sit out 9 holes on the third day, the day he tore his arm muscle.
Since this physically debilitating trip we have settled on 5 day trips with 4 days of golf. This we have found we can handle without upgrading our medical plans.
In those early years we played mostly skins games and did not keep extensive records. However, beginning in 1995 we began keeping every round on the computer so every shot has been recorded and remembered. If you want to plumb the depths of our futility feel free to check out some of the posted statistics.