Mark Twain quipped that “golf is a good walk spoiled.” Of course, he didn’t get to play in Auburn-Opelika, Alabama, the number 1 place in the U. S. for golf (and it’s gotten better since that designation was awarded by Golf Digest in its August 2005 issue).

The large 21st annual Youth for Christ Golf Tournament was held last Monday at The AU Club. Previously on Friday, the small annual Erbacle AU Faculty/Staff Tournament was held at the same facility, thanks to Chick Wade. The latter tournament was played with rules similar to Ryder Cup rules where three of the four nines were played with different formats. The alternating shot format is an especially interesting feature that puts pressure on each player’s shot because it affects his partner’s next shot.

Several local golf clubs continue to improve their already nice grounds: Saugahatchee Country Club is in the midst of major clearing of woods surrounding their course layout, especially noticeable along Bent Creek Drive. The AU Club is putting in about an acre of grass and shrubs on the wide mall leading down to Lake Yarbrough. Streets in their second subdivision layout (entrance near the pool) have recently been paved as well.

Considering golf statewide, the Marriot at The Shoals, a new Robert Trent Jones (RTJ) course in Lauderdale County (Florence), was chosen the best Marriot of all of their 333 hotels. There’s not just golf there, but also fishing, country music, and a spa, according to the Retirement Systems of Alabama. Tourism has jumped 37 percent there recently. Ross Bridge, another new RTJ course in Birmingham, has been featured in a widely distributed ad - especially interesting now that many people in the States have seen the brown grass of the recent British Open. The ad, showing the 17th green at Ross Bridge with a sunset-lit-up Birmingham skyline in the distant background, states, “It’s really not fair to compare Alabama golf with Scotland; it’s not fair to Scotland.”

In regard to the British Open that was televised worldwide, it was interesting to note that the golfers who finished first and second (just two strokes apart, Tiger Woods and Chris DeMarco), each were playing while dealing with the emotional impact of recent deaths of a parent (Tiger’s father, and Chris’s mother). I liked what DeMarco said when asked about his mother’s death, “She’s got the best seat in the house! She would really have been ticked off if I hadn’t played.” (His mother died suddenly two weeks ago.) “It’s therapeutic for me to play within the ropes, and it’s therapeutic for my dad to watch from outside the ropes,” the ropes describing the separation between the players and the gallery. “I made sure my dad came along with me,” he concluded.

Exercise can play a very significant role in getting beyond grief because grief, among other emotional factors, can play a very real role in one’s health, or health decline. Grief can certainly kill you.

There are a myriad of life events that can really get you down. If that’s where you are now, get back on the course, or the court, or on what works like a treadmill for you. More importantly, get a book like the one by aerobics founder Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., “It’s Better to Believe” (1995).

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins is an emeritus professor of engineering of Auburn University and writes a weekly column for The Opelika-Auburn News.