Golfers' Pet Peeves: #2 Cell phone guy

Take a quick second and think of a few things you love about the great game of golf…

If one of your thoughts was that it’s a great time to check your Instagram, your Facebook, or record your latest Tik Tok dance then you’re cell phone guy. Don’t be that guy. Just don’t.

Here’s a story for you…

I have a very good friend, whose name I will not use for privacy reasons – let’s just call him co-founder of Pro Shop Golf, Michael Jover. Now, this fictional founder of PSG, Michael Jover, was my best man at my wedding in Las Vegas. We’ve known each other since high school. He’s the best – hence the fancy title of Best Man. Now, this guy we’re calling Michael Jover is also a very good golfer. So good, in fact, that he never let’s me forget just how good he is. Now, Michael – doing what many Canadians do – was a snow bird in Scottsdale for six months at a time, for a couple of years. He asked me every day, “When are you going to come and visit?”, which he would routinely follow with, “So that I can smoke your ass on the golf course!” (He’s a humble one, this Michael Jover.) With me spending many years in school, as well as working and living in a far away city from Michael, we didn’t get to hang out in person very much for quite a few years, so his ask, as poorly as intentioned as it was, was valid. But then a couple of years ago a situation occurred: my career underway, cheap flights, free accommodation = perfect timing. So down I finally went on a golf trip to play with my best man, and to hang out just like old times.

If you’re proficient at reading between the lines and detecting foreshadowing then you know what happened for the seven days of golf in beautiful Scottsdale. That’s right, I got to hang out with a zombie each round; a zombie that would walk with its head down and glued to glowing screen, only to look up from time to time in order to hit a golf ball, or to change direction after it ran into a tree, or tee box, or water station, which is easy to do when you’re a golf zombie who has been bitten by the cell phone/social media bug.

But the trip wasn’t a total loss. Michael and I got to hang out after each round (between intervals, of course, of him staring into his phone at the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table), and he even introduced me to some great golfers; and I got to know them pretty well, as they were there, like me, to enjoy each other’s company while golfing.

If you know a cell phone guy then send him this story, have an intervention, and let’s get back to experiencing social reality rather than social media while on the course.

Credit goes to @ulothalex66

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