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7th Heaven Improv
On one of the last days of my road trip through New England and to Tanglewood for the first time back in the summer, I seized an opportunity to get in a little golf, something I like to do a couple of times a year. This beautiful course, nestled on the shores of Lake Champlain in upstate New York, was simply fabulous, a real treat for the wayfarer!
The first thing to catch my attention as I approached the tricky dogleg 7th was the sound of a steady wind gusting through some dry leaves of a stand of trees that encircled the tee-off area. The combination of sight and sound together with the history of the almost century-old Willsboro Golf Course was a heady one, and inspired me to play on my vintage single-keyed flute – after all, I had tucked a couple of flutes into my golf bag (see picture below) for that very reason!
As I threw my flute sounds out onto the breeze for apparently an audience of none, a dog began to howl in response from a nearby house, hidden from view. I hoped that he was on a leash of some kind! This spontaneous duo was amusing and enjoyable, even though I hadn’t meant to create such a disturbance in this pastoral setting! It reminded me of my crazy duos with Benny, the singing dog.
And of course it was only afterward with the lingering summer light slowly ebbing and as I was about to putt out on the 9th green, that the connection suddenly dawned on me: ‘duo for flute and dog’ at the tee-off area for the only dogleg on the back nine: what were the chances?!
PS: I played the hole brilliantly but messed up my play on the green: note to self, work on my short game!
