Rusty gate swings into action

Ables Golf on Avery was doing a brisk business yesterday when Oldgolfdawg joined the party. The clicking sound of balls taking flight at the driving range was steady as he made his way toward an open tee and began his first practice session of the 2010 golf season.

With each swing of the club, Oldgolfdawg could feel barnacles of rust fall off his back as he methodically worked his way through a big bucket of balls. After being away from the game for more then three months, Oldgolfdawg quickly came to the conclusion that his swing felt more like a rusty gate than the fine-tuned instrument he hopes it becomes before the summer is through.

But that realization didn't ruin the exercise. The first bucket of balls of any season is just one step on the journey toward lower scores. Just to be out swinging a club was enough to make Oldgolfdawg happy regardless of the results. Part of the price one pays for living in Ohio is that three-month period each year when one's game is shut down by weather realities.

In the book Golf & Life, Jack Nicklaus told Dr. John Tickell that he thought Ohio winters helped his game while he was growing up because they prevented him from becoming stale from too much golf. Oldgolfdawg wouldn't go so far as to call winters a blessing of sorts but will admit that players can lose bad habits that were beginning to crop up in their games during the winter shutdown period.

Regardless of one's view on the benefits of winter, don't get upset if it takes some time to get rid of the rust that built up during the days of inactivity. You've got the rest of the season to get better. Enjoy the journey.

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If Tiger Woods returns to competition at the Masters as two sources have suggested to the Associated Press, it won't be the first time he has returned from a layoff to compete in a major without a warm-up event under his belt.

Woods twice has gone nine weeks without competing before showing up at a major. The first time was in 2006, when he didn't play after the Masters while coping with his father's death, then missed the cut in a major for the first time in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Two years ago, he was out with knee surgery until winning the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines on a shattered left knee.

Woods has not played since Nov. 15, when he won the Australian Masters in Melbourne for his 82nd career victory. Twelve days later, he crashed his SUV into a tree near his Florida home, setting off shocking revelations that he had been cheating on his wife.

Information from the Associated Press was utilized in this post.