It hit me the other day! Actually, I hit it. My caddy said to spank the ball down the middle. I shanked it to the left. We finally found it hidden in the rough, and I told the caddy that this surely could not be my ball. This ball was way too old. He replied that it had been a really long time since we had teed off. OK. It was my ball. I did have a shot, though, and the only thing between the green and me was a small branch. Trees are 90 percent air, so all I had to do was to aim for that small branch. I would never hit such a tiny object and then my ball would be on the green. That is when it hit me. The golf ball, that is. I hit the small branch and it came right back at me. The caddy said that was a penalty. I told him it was a foul ball. That happened to Derek Jeter of the Yankees all the time.

So I then lined up another shot. There was no way I could hit that small branch twice. Miracles do happen. This time the ball went right off the small branch and into the lake! After the penalty drop, I hit a great shot four feet from the hole. Just a small putt for a pretty good score is all I needed. Three small putts later, I had a nine after one hole. That is when it did hit me. Small things can cause a lot of damage.