before odin was born on the fourth of july kris’ family would get together for the 4th weekend in the upper peninsula of michigan with activities centered around odin’s grandparent’s house in gladstone. the year he was born a few members of kris’ family played a round of golf at the gladstone gold and country club that turned into an annual event and after a few years a “divot award” was created to go to the player that best exemplifies its spirit of, uh, unusual excellence.

kris and i have played almost every year and i have no idea how i don’t have more photos from past years online. i’m guessing they are sitting on disk somewhere. it’s a great time and over nine years participation has expanded beyond family – this year we had 25 golfers! to keep the game from taking all day with the growing number of players we had move to scramble format many years ago. many of the holes have contests like “longest drive” and “closest to the pin”. winners of the contests receive a prize of immense value from the local thrift store.

i’m not a very good golfer and don’t take the game seriously which is part of the reason why i have so much fun tooling around with 25 other folks in golf carts on a beautiful day on a beautiful course.

oh, and there are adult beverages involved.

there’s plenty of wildlife on the course. and not just the adults! ( rimshot ) in addition of seeing a few deer every year, we happened upon a friendly fox who seemed like he might be willing to eat out of my hand if i had any snacks.

a few years ago, one of odin’s teenage cousins started a tradition of getting an outfit for the divot open at a local thrift store. not everyone has embraced the tradition, but some of us believe it’s all part of the fun. i think in a few years everyone will be rocking a thrifty ensemble.

there wasn’t much available in the men’s department, so i decided to go with size 6 capris, a sleeveless woman’s top and a terry cloth fedora. the sleeveless shirt really helped me even out my farmer’s tan.

when i walked into clubhouse, there were about a hundred people eating for some sort of function ( and had no idea we were starting the divot open ) and almost all of them stopped to look up. a guy at nearby table caught my eye and laughed, “i would so totally do that.”

without skipping a beat, i reached for his kids half eaten chicken finger and asked, “you going to finish that?” the wide eyed kid slowly nodded yes.

i heard “ha! i would so totally do that too!” as i walked out the door.

i think some are a little jealous I can fit in size 6 woman capris.

after the game there’s pizza and beer while handing out of awards. it’s been a few years since the divot award came home. i think kris might have won it 2010. maybe next year!

i did get a beer cozie for “most spirit” award for my outfit which was a nice consolation prize 🙂

next year is going to be bigger and better since it’s be the 10th annual divot open and we might even let odin play for the first time on his 10th birthday.