Mind if we play through?

Have you ever played golf with a dirt bike rider? Have you ever been a dirt bike rider that played golf? What is our fascination with hopping on a freshly prepped, Kawasaki KX450F with a shiny new set of Dunlop tires, and heading out to the closest golf course and riding in a heavenly bliss until the sun goes down? Some people dream of hanging the perfect 10 on a huge wave while a cute island girl watches his every move. Some people dream about being a rock star. Not pure MX people, we dream about golf courses and a good bike (and a good-looking cart girl to bring us a cold beverage when we get hot and tired would not be bad either).

Trust me; this has nothing to do with the desire to ride some place that is off limits or being destructive and tearing up some upscale, schwanky, private club. No, this is about Zin. As motocross or off road riders, we get chills at the thought of perfect traction. We drool at the thought of launching our bikes out of a perfectly groomed sand trap. We get giddy at the thought of no dust and just think of the roost a rear tire would launch as you accelerated across a green as smooth as silk!

I think of this every time I play or even drive by a golf course, but Tuesday was different. My 9-year-old son, Joshua, and I went down the street to the 500 Club Golf Course. This fantastic, 18 hole desert course in north Phoenix is owned by Tom Sneava (the 1983 Indy 500 winner) and they have just recently opened up a small, 9 hole, par-3, executive course that my son asked me several times if we could play. Tuesday was the perfect day because it was 72F, slightly breezy and my son’s school had an early release. We had not even hit our first tee shot when Josh said to me, “Dad? Could you imagine what it would be like to ride our bikes here?” I just smiled and said, “Pure heaven, son.” A couple of holes later, I was waiting for Josh to grab a club and approach his ball….nothing. He was just staring out across the course. I said, “Hey, kiddo, you ok?” and he snapped to and said, “Yeah dad, I was just wondering if you could make that double,” as he pointed to two huge hills on either side of the green behind us. “No,” I said “the take off is way too short and that is about 100 feet across. But I think it is do-able if you hit that takeoff,” as I pointed to another hill. We stood in that fairway looking at jump possibilities and racetrack designs for 10 minutes.

As we walked the rest of the course, we made tracks and jumps out of everything we saw and both agreed that it was a good thing they did not offer golf carts on this small course. We might have been tempted to try some of our mental creations with the EZ-GO cart and who knows what might have happened. Oh sure, our golf scores went the wrong way as we were no longer focused on the “perfect golf shot” but it was a day I will never forget.

I will be attending the FBR, Phoenix Open being held at the T.P.C. in Scottsdale on Friday so if you hear about some nut job that jumped a golf cart into the sand trap on hole 17, you will know that one of the Thunderbirds left the keys in his empty cart as I walked by. See you out there!

Jason Cobb