Boating safety in Florida
Laws and tips on boating safety in Florida
When he’s not covering St. Lucie County, reporter Wicker Perlis shares his time with his fiancé, their pets and shooting a round of golf.Golf is a tie to his days of playing football — from ages 6 to 17.And how do you beat Treasure Coast weather for being ale to golf year round?
Golf is a game that can take up a lot of time. It also is one that takes consistent practice in order to start playing better, and thus more quickly.
I am in the unfortunate position of being a golfer who does not give myself enough of that consistent time on the course or the range to get much better or quicker.
Yet when I do find free time on the weekends, squeezed in between activities with my fiancé and our pets, golf is what I gravitate towards.
I played sports all my life growing up, particularly football. From the age of 6 until the age of 17 I played offensive line on tackle football teams at various levels. I loved the competitiveness and challenge of working hard at something and seeing results. And then, when that last football game my senior year of high school ended, that ended too.
In college, pickup basketball games or throwing a ball in the yard didn’t quite scratch the itch. Golf, at times, can scratch it.
In the spring, when there wasn’t football to be played, I also did theater. Playing Lurch in The Addams Family or The Mysterious Man in Into The Woods allowed me to be creative. Then, that, too, ended. Writing has allowed me to be creative, albeit in a different way, but golf can scratch the creative itch as well. Coming up with a plan of attack for a particular situation — particularly with how far off the fairway I can sometimes find myself — requires creativity.
Most of all, though, playing golf encourages me to spend time outdoors. Even in the faux-nature setting of a golf course, there is real beauty. Luckily, in Florida, we have good enough weather that we can play golf year-round. That is a big reason why so many professional golfers live here, including some on Jupiter Island in Martin County. Other parts of the country are not so lucky. To be able to go outside for four or five hours, in the sun, feel the breeze and see or hear the birds flying overhead in December or January is a real joy to me.
Golf can, at times, be controversial, as we’ve recently seen in the pushback against proposals to build courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Courses can take up a lot of space. In some parts of the county they can use a lot valuable resources such as water. The barrier to entry — buying clubs and paying public greens fees or private membership dues — can be high.
All of that, of course, must be acknowledged. But for me, golf is an opportunity to reconnect with my athletic past, to use my creativity and to spend time outside in this beautiful part of the world.
Wicker Perlis is TCPalm’s Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com.
