<em>"I play golf in the 70s. If it gets any colder, I won't play."</em>

It's an old joke that sounds like something Henny Youngman might have said, but if I have to wait for 70-degree temperatures, it's going to be quite a while before I get out on the golf course again.

Today was sunny out, and it looked like a great day to get in 18 holes. It was, and I did, but the temperature never made it above 28 degrees during the 2 1/2 hours I was playing. Add to that winds of 15-20 miles an hour that were knocking down some of my shots and sending others way off target, and it was a very challenging round. The best part of it was that it only took 2 1/2 hours, largely because from 1:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., there was exactly one person playing golf on the entire Sun City Peachtree course.

Me.

It was definitely a challenge. On Friday I played part of my round in shirtsleeves, but today I wore a long-sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt and a jacket the entire time. I had the hood up to protect my ears and I actually wore a ski mask for my nose and mouth as well. I don't know if I was golfing or robbing a filling station.

[caption id="attachment_683" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A freezing golfer"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/20101213_3.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-683" title="20101213_3" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/20101213_3-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I played the entire round wearing gloves, but even so, by the back nine my hands were feeling like blocks of wood.

I didn't play all that badly, although with three layers of clothing covering my arms and shoulders, I don't think I hit anything much farther than about 175 yards.

On Friday I shot 44 on the front nine and 47 on the back nine for 91.

Today I struggled a little more on the front nine and shot 46, and it took a beautiful 23-foot putt to save par on the fourth hole to do that well. Friday I had managed to get through my round with nothing worse than a six and nothing worse than a double bogey, but today I had two sevens, one of them for a triple bogey on the 10th hole.

I did putt better today. On Friday I three-putted four times and took 38 putts overall. Today I didn't three-putt at all and needed only 32 putts. One of them was a nice little 25-footer for a birdie three on the 15th hole.

All in all, I shot 91 again. My swing definitely seems to be recovering from the issues I had with it after losing more than 100 pounds this year.

I practically froze my <em>tuchus</em> off, but it was still wonderful to be on the course for the second time in four days. If all goes well, I'll get out once or twice more this week.

No matter how cold it gets.