I am sitting here in Georgia with the temperature at 27 degrees. No golf going on today for sure. But this is unusually cold and it won't last long, thank goodness! But as I was looking at the frost on the ground this morning, for some reason I started thinking about why I love this game of golf so much. And before you know it, I had rambled on for a while. So here are some thoughts for you as you hopefully look forward to the 2008 golf season that is just around the corner.

There are, in fact, many things that I love about golf. But one of the big ones is the fact that I can play the game and play it for a lifetime. And it really doesn't matter how good or bad I am at it.

The handicap system helps to equalize the game so that golfers of all abilities can play together. But to me it's more than that. Look at it like this. I will never run a 4.4 40 yard dash. I will never jam my elbow down the rim on the basketball court. I will never crush the baseball 500 feet.

But in golf, every now and then I hit that really sweet golf shot that goes exactly like it's supposed to. I don't even feel the golf ball make contact with the face of the club. The ball flies straight and true with just the hint of a draw. And it lands perfectly in the short grass right in the middle of the fairway.

Many times, that one shot is enough to keep us golfers coming back for more for many months to come. And that's what I love about golf. It's that all of us, no matter what our current handicap, have the hope that we can get better and hit more and more of those perfect golf shots this year. Otherwise why would we keep playing this crazy game that makes us say "I love this game, I hate this game" almost in the same breath?

I don't know about the rest of you golf nuts, but this time of year I am already thinking with eternal optimism about the strokes that I am going to cut off my game this year. And I can't wait for warm weather and the golf season to begin! To all of you that are crazy about this game like I am, best of luck in 2008!