It’s very tempting to say the daily writing prompts. First let us define boring. It is defined as something that is dull and uninteresting. The examples used are a boring discussion or lecture and a boring time. If you think something is boring it shows that you have not developed your brain above kid mode. This is one of the classic statements of the 6 to 12 year old crowd, “I’m BORED”! It is usually said, “I’m BORRRRRRRRRRED”! People will describe many things as boring when maybe they just mean that is bad or not very good. Movies, plays, and books can sometimes be described as boring when in reality they are not done very well. It is simply a misuse of the word. There are many activities, jobs, sports, and the arts that people will label boring. The reality is that nothing is boring. Individuals just do not take the time to explore and learn all of the intricacies of whatever they think is boring. The examples of this are too many to list. People just want to label something boring just so they will not have to learn something new. There are many things in this world that may disgust you, make you bewildered why so many people like to do something, seem ridiculous, or why something is so popular. None of those things are boring. There are many mundane things in life that we have to do. You can make all of these things better by doing things like reading about other things that you think are boring. Meditating during these times may be a way to learn how to meditate. Any time you say you are bored you are causing you brain to contract. Exploring and learning about things that you think are boring is a way to make your brain expand. There are always exceptions to such a philosophy, which brings us back to the daily writing prompt.
Favorite Drink
It depends. If food is not involved and I am just drinking fluid, then I will drink beer or Trader Joe flavored Sparkling Water. The Trader Joe drink may be the best drink ever invented. No calories no artificial sweeteners, which will kill you by the way. If you are drinking any kind of diet drink with any kind of artificial sweetener you might as well start smoking 4 packs a day and hope your death comes quicker and with less pain. Look for European medical articles to see how dangerous they are. I am surprised how people are so blind to the perils of artificial sweeteners. They are like the Donald Trump of additives. I like beer with certain types of food, any type of fried sea food, pizza, and salty foods like peanuts. I am not an IPA guy but do like all kinds of beer. Some of my favorites from number one on down are Shiner Bock, Yingling, Bass Ale, Labatt Blue, Iron City, Heineken Lite, and Labatt Blue Lite. Another beer I really liked was Anchor Steam that was brewed out in San Francisco. They recently went belly up and there are rumors they may be back. One thing about Anchor Steam was that it was pricey, at just over $40 dollars a case. I have never drunk wine without food being involved. Red wine goes with steak and red sauce pasta. White Wine goes with seafood and white sauce pasta. I like Merlot, Chianti, and dry Reisling. I do enjoy a gin and tonic once in a while before a nice meal at a restaurant. I have rarely drunk Vodka, Scotch, or other various whiskeys. I am also a big milk drinker. I will have cereal for breakfast about 2 to 4 times per week and will just drink milk at other times. I guess this could be considered an odd one, but I love milk with popcorn. I have one cup of coffee at least, every morning for my caffeine hit. I look forward to that and do enjoy it. One thing I do not like to drink is water. This is another place where the sparkling water is a godsend. I admit I really like carbonation. Water for me is just bland, whether you put a lemon or lime in it, is not going to make a difference. If I had to make a choice and drink only one thing the rest of my life, it would probably be Shiner Bock or sparking water. I did have beer and eggs once at 8 in the morning, so I guess the real answer to question is Shiner Bock. It’s nice that I don’t have to drink one thing the rest of my life. Thank God it’s always 5 o’ clock somewhere.
Favorite People
My favorite people to be around is my daughter and her family, including her extended family. When I go out to California to visit them, I could not have a better time. There is the old saying you can choose your friends but not your relatives. If I could have chosen them, I would have in a heartbeat. Everything is upbeat and we just have a good time. I don’t know how else to put it. My next choice is to be around people on the golf course. People I would do little else with I enjoy playing golf. Now there are exceptions both ways. There is one person I knew, who off the golf course was about as personable as anyone could be. He told great stories, seemed to be upbeat about anything and was just a great guy to just hang out with. Once he got on the golf course it was a different story. He would become upset at the least little thing. He could shoot a score of close to par or right at par, and you would have thought he shot 90, the way he behaved. Needless to say, as much I liked this guy, we no longer play golf with him. I enjoy being around anyone who likes to have a lively discussion about sports, especially golf, football, and baseball. I enjoy being around people at the neighborhood bar, even though I might not interact with them. I just like to be around people who seem like they are having a good time eating and drinking. I like to be in that noisy chaotic environment every once in a while. I love to go to concerts to feel the electricity and excitement before the main act comes out. I can feed off all of that, to feel an energy lift through my entire body. I enjoy being around people that are all rooting for the same sports team. I know that it can’t happen all of time, due to unfortunate circumstances, but any situation involving people that can lift my mood, I love to experience. The nice thing is that happens every time I visit my family.
Best Gifts
Without a doubt the best gift I ever received was the gift of life from my parents. We all wonder about fate. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the reverse of being in the right place at the right time. Fate can sometimes be a wonderful or cruel thing. I don’t know if you have ever seen the Benjamin Button movie, but the Cate Blancett character is hit with a car that ruins her ballet career. It shows in the movie how many things had to happen had just the right time for her to have the accident. There are many situations in life that are comparable resulting in good or bad things happening in one’s life. However, the most fateful day of your life was day that you were conceived. Just think if your father was too tired or your mother had the proverbial headache you would not be here, plain and simple. There could have been dozens of things at that particular moment that could have prevented them from having sex. Instead, you were created, for better or worse. No question that is the greatest gift I have ever had, and I have my parents to thank for it. The gift of life, with all of its craziness, strangeness and wonderfulness, there cannot be anything greater than that.
I Can’t Stop Laughing
To explain my “approach” to budgeting I first have to explain my basic philosophy of money. My goal in life is to die a pauper. Having said that, I do not want to live like a pauper. My family is very well off. They are far from wealthy but unless something unusual happens they will never want for anything. My 3 grandkids will be able to go to the college of their choice without any help from me. I have no desire to leave anybody any money. I never really planned for retirement, and I do have a little nest egg, but that is the key word, little. Since I have retired in 2019, I have traveled to the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, London, and Paris. Later this year we are going to Italy. Naturally Covid cut into our travel plans in 2020. I play as much golf as I want but I play golf courses that are more senior and price friendly. I do not do as much travel golf as I once did. I am having too good of time to bother with a “retirement” job at the moment. I cannot rule out that I won’t ever get one, but for now, I don’t see that in the near future. I will consider myself a pauper when I run out of money and only have social security to live on. There are some things that could happen that could stop me from achieving my goal. I could die suddenly of varies ailments or injuries. I think most if not all of my money would go to my family. I have a will, but I don’t remember what I bequeathed and to whom. I do know I did not give anything to any organization because I hate them all. What would be better is to be told that I have a finite period to live and go crazy baby. If I live that long, I plan on running out of money between 81 and 83 years of age. Right now, with the way things are going I won’t do that. Not the way you think either, I still will have money, so I am going to free myself up a little bit as time goes by and spend a little more. I do have my money invested and since 2019 things have gone pretty well, but naturally that can always change. In a nutshell, my approach to budgeting is to be broke in about 8 to 10 years, sit around watching basic cable, have some sort of internet connection, eat about 2 meals per day, and drink tap water. Of course, I need a roof over my head, but I think social security will cover by basic age 80+ lifestyle. Who knows maybe I will be able to play golf 6 or 7 times per year. That is some kind of approach, don’t you think?
Golf: The Top 20 Golfers Of All Time
Anytime you make a list like this there is always going to be disagreement. I tried to make the process as objective as possible, with opinion thrown out the window. The criteria I used was wins and major championships. Winning is not emphasized enough in golf. There have been many golfers over the years that have made very good livings on the PGA touring with winning hardly any tournaments. The golfing media is into top 10 finishes and even scoring average to some degree. I gave a player one point for a win and 5 points for a major championship win. Since this is going all the way back to the 1900’s, the U. S. and British Amateurs are considered majors. I will go into this more as I go through the list but there still had to be some subjectivity when doing the process. Professional wins in some cases had to be weighted somewhat and some not included. I did not include any team events and no senior wins were included. The quality of play is very good, but it is not the quality that is on the regular tour. If it was, these guys would be playing the regular tour, because they would win about two to three times the amount of money. As much as I admire the longevity of players like Bernard Langer and Hale Irwin their senior careers were not included. The two surprises to me that just failed to make it were Lee Trevino, not enough regular wins, and Vijay Singh, not enough majors, both falling one point short of making the top 20. No active player on the PGA tour made it, with Rory coming the closest falling 10 points short. With no further ado, here is the list and since most of the surprises are from the middle on, I am going to go from no. 1 down to 20
No 1. Tiger Woods 95 wins 18 majors 185 points. No surprise here. Tiger’s record speaks for itself. The amazing thing here is that he has 38 European Tour wins to go along with his 3 British Opens which is third all time. He really is a winning machine. What is remarkable he did about 90% of this from 1997 to 2008. It was quite an 11 year stretch.
No. 2 Jack Nicklaus 64 wins 20 majors 164 points. Just not enough worldwide wins for Jack to catch Tiger. No question, major championship record 2nd to none, and with as many 2nd and 3rd place finishes he had, if the emphasis had not been placed on winning so much, he would have probably slipped just ahead of Tiger. Even though it is very hard to win in golf it still in my view the name of the game.
No. 3 Sam Snead 76 wins 7 majors 111 points. No question Tiger and Jack stand alone at the top. The next 5 are going to be separated by only 9 points. Sneads lack of a United States Open Championship is the big flaw in his record but even if he had won, he would not have challenged the top two. Other than the Open, it is clear that Snead knew how to close the deal.
No. 4 Gary Player 60 wins 9 majors 105 points. The first surprise for me on the list. I would not have ranked Gary that high. His worldwide wins put him in that position. Here is where I had to make some decision on the quality of wins and there were some, I gave no points for. The ones that I did give credit to were against good fields. You cannot argue about his record in the majors, he is tied for 5th all time.
No. 5 Ben Hogan 58 wins 9 majors 103 points. Many people rank Hogan 3rd on the all-time list. His horrible auto accident limited his activity. The odd thing about Hogan was his terrible playoff record of 8-12 and 1-3 in the majors. No question 1953 was his great year, playing in only 6 tournaments he won 5 including 3 majors.
No. 6 Walter Hagan 47 wins 11 majors 102 points. Hagan was a match play king winning 4 PGA championships in a row when it was contested at match play. During much of Hagen’s career there were only 3 professional majors to win per year. Even with less opportunity he finished 4th all time in major championship wins.
No.7 Arnold Palmer 62 wins 7 majors. 102 points. Tied with Hagen but I used majors to break any ties. The king was by far the player that gave golf its first major boost in popularity. Just could not win the PGA and only came close a couple of times losing by one shot to Julius Boros in 1968. His go for broke style which won him many a tournament and was popular, also lost him a couple of majors at least.
No. 8 Peter Thomson 65 wins 5 majors 90 points. By far the biggest surprise on the list. The man who gets no respect. He won 5 British Opens 4 in the 50’s when there was not a lot of American participation. He did win one in 1965 when it was beginning to get a foothold on being a big tournament again, thanks to Palmer. He won eleven times on the Senior Tour so it showed he knew how to play against his peers. He dominated what was known as the Great Britain tour in the 1950’s. It is hard to judge the quality of the competition at that time so I gave him only a half a point for those wins. It was hard to judge this player but one thing is for sure he knew how to win and is a forgotten great champion.
No.9 Bobby Jones 21 wins 13 majors 86 points. The only amateur on the list and the greatest amateur of all time. Another player who did not play in that many tournaments but won most that he played in. He had one of the greatest years in golf when he won the 4 major championships at the time in one-year, 1930.
No. 10 Seve Ballesteros 57 wins 5 majors 82 points. Again another worldwide player who had a magnificent short game. He got the Ryder Cup to go European and turned it into a premier event. He was wild off the tee which contributed to him never winning a U.S. Open. He finished 3rd in 1987. He helped put European golf on the map
No. 11 Greg Norman 69 wins 2 majors 79 points Again another worldwide player getting his just do. Second least number of major wins in the group but contended many times and had two unbelievable losses, the Mize pitch in and the Tway bunker shot. During 86 and the first major of 87 he was tied or in the lead in 5 straight majors after the 3rd round, the only player to ever do it. Then he lost the 6-shot lead to Nick Faldo in the 1996 Masters. What is amazing is that he still managed to finish 2nd even though he shot 78. Of the 44 players who played on Sunday only 11 broke par and just 5 broke 70. Faldo’s 67 was probably one of the best final rounds in major championship history. Normans career will always be thought of as what might have been.
No. 12 Roberto De Vicenzo 74 wins 1 major 79 points. Another surprise on the list. De Vicenzo was another great worldwide player whose wins had to be evaluated. He may have had 2 majors if not for the scorecard mistake at the 1968 Masters which cost him a place in a playoff with Bob Goalby. He was truly a great player and obviously new how to win. He and Norman are the only players with fewer than 3 major wins in the top 20. De Vicenzo had a great senior career which again shows that he could play with his contemporaries.
No. 13 Tom Watson 37 wins 8 majors 77 points. Another on the list that could not win the PGA, but he loved the British Open winning it 5 times. A player, like so many, that ran into putting problems late in his career, or would have won much more. Made the big chip in on 17 at Pebble Beach to keep Nicklaus from winning his 5th U.S. Open in 1982
No. 14 Phil Mickelson 46 wins 6 majors 76 points. It took Phil awhile but once he broke through in the majors he went on a tear. He ended it in 2021 by becoming the oldest to win a major. Like Sam Snead he never could win the U.S. Open but finished 2nd six times. 2006 was the brutal one when he double bogied the last hole to not even get into a playoff. His course management has been questioned the most of anyone on this list. There are many out there that think he would have won much more if had not made so many dumb mistakes.
No. 15 Harry Vardon 41 wins 7 majors 76 points. I put Vardon below Mickelson because there was no question the competition was not as great in the early 1900’s as it was in the 2000’s. Vardon is credited with starting the modern game. He was the dominant player for the first 20 years of the 20th century. Another victim of the bulky putter late in his career.
No. 16 Billy Casper 59 wins 3 majors 74 points. Casper went on a transformation in the mid 1960’s going on a diet that included buffalo meat. He dropped 40 pounds and added two majors, a U.S Open in 1966 which saw him make up a 7 shot deficit on Arnold Palmer, and a green jacket in 1970. He was the best putter of his era with that wristy pop stroke. He wrote an instructional putting article for Sports Illustrated, that my Dad and I followed to a T.
No. 17 Byron Nelson 48 wins 5 majors 73. I am sure many would put Bryon higher on this list. He had one of the greatest years in professional golf winning 11 tournaments in a row. Nelson is probably the only player on this list that did not enjoy tournament golf. For him golf was a ways and a means to buy a ranch and become a rancher, which is exactly what he did. He probably would have won a lot more if his heart had been in it. No Open championship for Nelson.
No. 18 Gene Sarazen 38 wins 7 majors 73 points. Sarazen had one of the most famous shots in golf the double eagle at no. 15 at Augusta in 1935 that propelled him into a tie with Craig Wood and the next day won the 36 hole playoff. It is unlikely the Masters needed any help in establishing itself as a major but the double eagle shot solidified the deal. This allowed Sarazen to become one of only 5 players to win all of the majors.
No. 19 Ernie Els 47wins 4 majors 67 points. Els will be always known as the man that Tiger Woods kept from winning even more. If Tiger had not come on the scene when he did, Els probably would have won at least 3 more majors. Els had one of the worst cases of the yips when he 7 putted the first green in the 2016 Masters. Els had a great career, but it will be what “Wood” have happened if Tiger had not come along.
No. 20 Nick Faldo 36 wins 6 majors 66 points. Last but certainly not least Nick Faldo was the man that started all the swing change nonsense. He made a big swing change with coach David Leadbetter and turned his career around. He went from a journeyman player with the nickname of Nick Foldo, to becoming a 6 time major champion winner and no. 1 player in the world.
There you have it, the top 20 golfers of all time. Some would argue that there is too much emphasis on worldwide wins rather than concentrating on PGA tour wins. I tried to value the wins but in some cases I think I went overboard. I was really surprised by Peter Thomson’s record. His British Open wins, particularly the ones he won in the 50’s have always been tainted by so called weak fields. However, the last time the British team beat the US team in the Ryder Cup was in the mid 50’s. I just cannot go along with the premise that the best golf was only played in America. I think it is a good list driven by one thing, winning. Winning on the world stage and winning in national events no matter where they are played is still one of the most difficult things to do in golf. I feel there will be some current players that will crack this top 20, but we will see. For now, I will take any of the top 20 against any other 4 you want to have.
How Would I Know That?
Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?
The only way you would know that you had unintentionally broken a law would be to be arrested for it. On the other hand have I ever intentionally broken the law? Oh, hell yeah. I will take the 5th amendment so no one is going to know. But this ridiculous writing prompt has led me to a story. In my younger day I use to play golf with these “old guys”, who were probably younger than I am now. I played with them one time per week and we teed off at the crack of dawn. That meant in late June early July it was 5am. I would get up at 4:30, splash cold water on my face, brush my teeth, put a ball cap over my long greasy hair, and out the door. I would make it just when they were heading down to the first tee. One day I was running a little late and was at a traffic light waiting for the left turn arrow to change to green. Through traffic had the green light. There was only the street on my left. In other words there was no road to my right. It was 4:45 in the morning and hardly any traffic. I could see one car on my left waiting for the light to change which would be next. Being late I thought what the hell, I’ll just make the left against the red light. To this day I do not know why I didn’t do it. The light changed on my through street to red and the traffic on the left started to move out. The third car out was a police car. I could not believe it. It could have turned out to be a very expensive round of golf. I made it to the first tee on time anyway. Now I have done things unintentionally, like shit my pants, fell jogging, spilled many glasses full of liquid and gotten lost. Unintentionally breaking the law, how the hell would I know?
Retired Just Like Me
When my parents were 73, they were retired just like me. My mother was a secretary who worked during World War II, before I was born. Once I was born, she stayed home which was the norm in those days. She went back to work when I went to college and worked until she was 62. My Dad owned a beer distributor until 1968 and then worked as a salesman for an appliance store until he was 67. I can honestly say that the retirement years were the best years of my Dad’s life. My parents owned rental property that consisted of two houses, two garage apartments, one small mobile home, and a building that contained 4 apartments, all on one floor. My Dad was a Mr. Fix It and he woke up every day hoping someone would have a problem with something so he could fix it. There were only the three of us, my parents and me. However, we had 3 washing machines, 2 dryers, 4 lawn mowers, and various motors everywhere in the garage. None of them cost a dime. My Dad would find them, bring them home, repair or replace whatever was wrong with them and we would have a new appliance or piece of equipment. He had the motors to replace the motors on the various pieces of equipment we had, in case something went wrong with them. I can say growing up, I never saw a repair man, plumber, or electrician the entire time. Back in the day, when TV’s had tubes instead of transistors, he would always be able to fix the TV. I can remember standing in front of the TV set telling my Dad, picture, no picture, sound, no sound. I can also remember us messing around with the test pattern. If you don’t know what a test pattern is, look it up. My Dad always made sure that the test pattern was always perfect. He even checked it when there seemed to be nothing wrong, just to make sure. My Dad died when he was 83, after about a 4-month illness. He had the best 15 years of retirement that anybody could possibly have had. Every day he was doing the one thing he loved to do most, fix something that was broken or doing the maintenance on something to make sure it would get broken.
Oh, Brother
Daily writing prompt
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
I thought it was too much to ask for, two good writing prompts in a row. What I do not understand here, is why a writing prompt is something that you can answer in one or two words. This isn’t a survey questionnaire. The one before yesterday wanted to know what your favorite candy was. My answer, dark chocolate, end of blog. I don’t know about you but when I get great, amazingly fantastic news, I smile, end of blog.
Let Me Count The Activities
Daily writing prompt
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
This may be one of the best writing prompts for old people, like me. Looking back between 1970 and 1990, there were many things that held my interest back then that I either no longer do or have little or no interest in now. I am not sure that I have outgrown them. Maybe they outgrew me. Here are my more current activities or hobbies. I still play golf, watch golf, listen to music, all kinds, watch the Pirates, watch the Steelers, write, watch college football, cook, exercise daily, and have many posts on X, my handle is Reuther70, if you want to see how deranged I am. I still love to watch movies. Now to what I use to do but not anymore.
Jogging. I have a bum ankle from an occupational injury and now I walk. It is probably the only thing I do not do anymore that I really do miss. Walking is ok but naturally takes up more time to cover the same distance. I had to give up jogging about 9 years ago.
Gardening. Wow, this was a big one from 1976 until around 1995. I took it up again in the early 2000’s but not to the degree I had done it before. For those 20 years I was into it. I had three plots, one 17×18, another 10×17, and a smaller lettuce and herb plot, 10×10. This was totally a vegetable garden, and I grew almost everything. I grew all the “normal” stuff” plus melons, horseradish, corn, potatoes, spinach, and things I can’t even think of now. My only true failure was peanuts. I could not get those little buggers out of the ground. What ended my gardening hobby. One hundred plus rounds of golf per year while working 45 to 50 hour weeks. I was a stud in my 50’s.
The Boston Celtics. As much as I loved the Pirates and Steelers, from 1962 until 1988 no sports team got me as excited as they did. John Havlicek was born in my home town of Martins Ferry, Ohio and grew up in the adjoining town of Bridgeport. Once he joined the Celtics I was an immediate fan. Those years were so exciting and once Bill Russel retired, Havlicek got what I called two Havlicek NBA Titles in the early to mid 70’s. Larry Bird came in the 80’s, and another great decade followed. Then the game changed, the Celtics hit some hard times and even though they have been contenders through much of the 2000’s with one title, I only follow them peripherally now, rarely watching them even in the playoffs.
Watching Commercial TV Series. The Last TV series I watched on commercial TV was NYPD Blue. It went off the air in 2005. Even with the DVR I really have no interest in commercial TV. Maybe I did outgrow that.
Listening to the Radio. Thanks to streaming and podcasts I never listen to the radio, and I mean never. Even when I hear someone else listening to the radio, I walk quickly away. There is just something about radio that makes me regurgitate right away. Even Pepcid does not help with this reflux.
So, there’s the list. There is probably more but I really don’t remember. I do not miss any of it except the jogging. Nice writing prompt for a change. Yesterday, what’s your favorite candy? Dark Chocolate. I haven’t outgrown that one and never will. I turned this into a 2 prompt day.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 