“Beats me every time,” Marshall will tell me when I ask how their game went. Each Musketeer is aware I hang onto positive assessments. And a good game brings my husband home with a smile. When he opens the front door, his hand outstretched to show off his score card, his face is as bright as the morning’s sun.

There was a time when Tommy was obsessed with perfecting his golf game on his own, not only on Tuesdays. We bought the expensive cable package because it included the Golf Channel, he subscribed to two golf magazines, and there was never a question as to what my husband desired for gift-giving celebrations. “Book about golf,” I’d tell my daughters when they queried. I’d purchase the same.

I’d encourage this obsession. “Let’s go on the Internet and we’ll search for DVD’s,” I’d say. Tommy, who shuns computers as if they were unexploded bombs, would pull up a chair next to mine. “That one,” he’d say, as I scrolled the offerings. After the DVD’s arrived, Tommy would overcome his aversion and use my laptop as screen.

There were memorable incidents during that time of my husband’s addiction. Errant balls pinged a dent in the bedroom’s sliding glass doors and in one of our living room windows. His determination to use real golf balls when he practiced at the nearby park, instead of whiffle balls, would send me, a neighbor, and the park director to his spot. We pleaded with him to switch; he turned us all down.

This season, all practice in the house and park evaporated. We still have the Golf Channel, but Tommy only lands on it while flipping the remote. No new DVD’s have been ordered. And when my daughters asked about Father’s Day, my answer was, “Sweatshirt, no logo, medium.”

Gratefully, my husband still relishes his Tuesdays with his Musketeers. That’s when Barry, Hal, and Marshall watch over him, and I take off. All for one, one for all. Cue La Marseillaise.

©2013 Elaine Soloway for SeniorWomen.com

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