What a wicked game to play

Our neighbor invited me to golf with her a couple week's ago up at Riverside Country Club for ladies' night. I rushed home from work to change into a sleeveless collared shirt and shorts. It was so damn hot and muggy that day that we were uncertain if we'd even get past the first hole.
So, off we go in our putzy little electric cart. We head down a steep hill to the first tee box and I'm ready to play.
Mind you, I've only golfed twice this summer prior to this night. Once with Scott at Cedar Creek, where I shot a 61 on the front 9, and once with my dad at Cedar Farms, coming in with 49 on the first 9. Scott was scoring very generously considering I might have lost two balls in the water on the third hole. I call No. 3 at Cedar Creek my nemesis. And, I'll take the good score at Cedar Farms, but it's also an extrememly easy course - wide open, no water. That's my style.
But, as Jayna and I get ready for what turned into the longest, hardest and most aggravating 9 holes of my life, I'm staring down a fairway that I've never played. I have no idea where I'm going and how to get there as I tee up my first ball. I've never played this course and it's about to play me.
As if a course has a life of its own, that damn big, green monster swallowed us alive that night. If I hit left, Jayna hit right. If I got in the rough, which happened a lot especially on No. 7, I stayed in the rough. There was no hope for us.
We teed off shortly after 6 p.m. and ventured into the clubhouse at almost 9. It really shouldn't take 3 hours to play 9, but we managed it.
Inside, we sat down for dinner and a few drinks and our husbands joined only to humor us as we told them how terribly we played. I quickly became tired, and it's no wonder considering I probably swang the club about 100 times that day.
I left the course that night knowing a few things. I hate this game, I love this game, I hate this game. I can play better, I have played better. I will play better.