That weirdo looking stick in Peter’s hands is his new putter.

I am rather impressed with his selection. There were a few hundred choices at the Haggin Oaks Pro Shop, all arrayed around a large putting green inside the store. It was quite cool; there were about 4-6 holes to aim for, a large fake tree in the middle… and if you used your imagination, you might think you were on a putting green on some real live golf course somewhere fabulous (not really).  Around the putting green were about 14,593 different styles of golf bags to choose from. The store was a tad overwhelming.

[Related, but not to my golf post here, was a story I heard on NPR this morning about the psychology of choice, and how the more choices a person has, the less likely that person is to actually make a choice. Their example was mutual fund investments. They found that the more funds available to choose from, the less likely a person was to invest at all… it’s overwhelming, you’re rarely happy with your choice for fear of having made the wrong one, you’re more inclined to avoid the anxiety altogether, etc.

One might expect a 17 year old to be overwhelmed, or certainly to make a poor choice… but maybe not…]

Peter and I spent about 30 minutes shooting around. Really fun. The clubs ranged from a low of about 29 bucks to some that were around $400. There may have even been more expensive ones.. I just didn’t see them. Peter–a gear head who typically ranks quality and value by the price of the item, and has always wanted the best he could talk us into buying–chose a $30 putter. It was his first putter and he wanted to get something inexpensive enough that he could try it and not feel bad if it didn’t pan out. Uncharacteristically sensible.  The kid is really growing up.

He also got two golf gloves for $12, super bargain, and he selected a pair of Nike golf shoes that were also incredibly reasonably priced.

Anyway…  equipping ourselves for the big Maui golf adventure in a couple weeks.

By this evening, he’d come up with a living room putting competition that turned out really fun. Golfer me lost. I think I’m toast, but we’ll see what Hawaii brings.