Lotsa golf, with apologies to Rogers Hornsby …

“I don’t like golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to chase it.”
– Rogers Hornsby

I promised a report on five days of golf in northwestern Wisconsin, and just in case there are any avid golfers in my readership, I feel obligated to deliver. I understand that this kind of entry is more in the spirt of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Fark or the like, but in the current climate that’s not a criticism, merely an observation.

After getting back from Milwaukee early Saturday morning (Sept. 19), we drove to Rhinelander, Wis., for 18 holes, then on to our lodging at the Lac Courte Oreilles Casino in Hayward, Wis. We then went on to play 36 holes each day for the next four days, 10 rounds of golf on seven different courses. All of the courses were swell, a couple were so nice we played them twice. Not so much as a drop of rain in four days.

While Tiger & Co. were readying for the Tour Championship and the wrapup of the better configured but still confusing Fed Ex Cup $10-million bonanza, I was launching drives deep into the spectacular North Country woods, playing often narrow, hilly courses with a reckless abandon worthy of a hacker with more than two-dozen brand-new golf balls safely ensconced in the bag. When we returned on Wednesday evening, I had lost every last one of them.

I also lost $200 at the casino, though not in the typical fashion (and, hopefully, not permanently). Clever rube that I am, I got snookered by a rougue ATM machine, not by a slot machine or a black jack dealer. Took my ATM card and then defiantly refused to render me any cash whatsoever.

It wasn’t until a day after I got back home that I confirmed with my bank that indeed I had been momentarily hosed by – gulp! – yet another computer, those modern marvels that everybody swears by but I seem to routinely want to whack with a sledgehammer. I have been undertaking to get the error fixed and am reasonably confident of a happy ending.

It’s a pretty good marker of how much fun we had on the vacation that I didn’t let that minor incident even remotely bother me at the time. We ate like hedonists, including several big, fat steaks and world-class ribs at the original Famous Dave’s not far outside of Hayward.

Anybody wants more detail than that feel free to contact me through the comments section or e-mail me directly. Great fun, and assuming I get my $200 back, I wouldn’t even hesitate to recommend the casino for lodging and gaming.

Just to be on the safe side, though, I would avoid the ATM machine at the front entrance.