It's the good moments that keep bringing us back for more

Sometimes golf literally drives me crazy.

In a good way, of course.

Last week when I was playing at Heron Bay, just about the only thing I could do right was putt. I shot a 93, and without some good putts it would have been worse.

On 9, two putts for par.

Today I went back out in the bright sunshine on my regular course, Sun City Peachtree, and I literally could not make a putt to save my life. I had six or seven putts of less than 10 feet for birdies or pars and I did not make any of them.

I shot an 83.

See what I mean? It makes no sense at all, except to say that I was shooting lights out with my approach shots. On the sixth hole, a par four that has the toughest green on the course, I hit a mediocre tee shot but then hit my second shot from 157 yards away and put it seven feet from the cup. I two-putted, but that still left me with a par on a tough hole.

The ninth hole was disappointing. My tee shot on the par three was four feet from the hole, but I missed the birdie putt and settled for a par.

That was pretty much the way the whole day was going. I was hitting marvelous approach shots but then always taking two putts for pars or bogeys.

Most of my tee shots weren't anything special, which was disappointing after the way I started my round. The first hole is a tough par four that I don't often par, but I hit my very first shot of the day 265 yards right down the middle. I hit an approach shot to 12 feet away, missed the birdie putt but tapped in for par.

I also finished well, thanks to sort of a flukey shot. I had a mediocre tee shot and a crummy second shot on 18, leaving me with an uphill 35-yard shot to a three-tiered green. The flag was near the back, so once my shot reached the green, I had no idea where it went.

It had felt pretty good, though, and when I climbed the hill, I saw my ball literally one inch from the cup. Even I couldn't miss that par putt.

The 83 is the best I've shot in about a year, and if I can start getting onto the course a little more often, maybe I can break 80 again.

It reminds me of the final lines of Jim Bouton's wonderful baseball book, "Ball Four," when he wrote about a former major leaguer who was pitching in local rec leagues. It's funny, Jim O'Toole said, you spend all those years gripping a ball only to find in the end that it was the other way around.

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Under the heading of These People Eat Their Own, Tea Partiers are urging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to stand aside and not run for re-election next year. McConnell has been masterful in obstructing Senate Democrats, but the teabaggers think he may lose next year.

It was 49 years ago today that President Johnson signed the historic Civil Rights Act. He was right when he said it would cost Democrats the South, but it will be the greatest accomplishment for which LBJ is remembered. Martin Luther King was directly behind the president.

For better or for worse, Johnson may have been the last truly memorable president who really enjoyed being president and understood how to use the power of the office.

Yesterday I wrote about concerts I saw at the Capital Centre. I forgot to mention that there would have been a ninth concert. I had tickets in July 1978 to a show, but we moved into our apartment that day after two years in Austria. My wife had a headache, so I missed my chance (for another seven years) to see Bruce Springsteen.

Till tomorrow, dos vedanya.