Tiger’s back and everyone is starting to get excited. Around these parts, the heat has long since broken, the golf courses have completed their transition from Bermuda to winter rye, the snowbirds have arrived in earnest from Canada and the Midwest, and the literally hundreds of local courses with an hour’s drive time have upped their rates to take advantage of the population influx.

Which taken together means golf season in the Great American Southwest is here.

The Great White Shank is itching to get going, but there’s still work to be done at the range. Vegas weekend is coming in February, so I’m still a month away from my first official preparatory golf outings of the year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not ready: I’ve got my first couple dozen orange Wilson 50s courtesy of Amazon.com that I’ve already started chipping and putting with around the Superstition Springs putting green.

It woulda been kinda nice to not have to order new balls to start out another golf year, but, frankly, my supply took a beating during Goodboys week in July, leaving me with just white Callaway HEX Hots that, while perfectly fine for golf, left me feeling kind of naked (golf-wise) out there. I’ve gotten so accustomed to hitting (and looking for) orange balls I know are mine that having to continually check my ball to make sure I’m not hitting someone else’s becomes just one more thing this ADHD golfer has to worry about when he plays.

Maybe when (if) I ever become a real golfer I’ll switch back to white; until then it’s good to stay humble and play my happy orange balls. Besides, if their good enough for Pornanong Phatlum (although she plays Volviks), they’re most certainly good enough for The Great White Shank.