Jeremy AllenJeremy Allen, 37
Hixson
Math teacher
His feet made a squishy sound almost every time Jeremy Allen took a step Monday at Brainerd Golf Course.
It's been wet and squishy for far too long.
So the Red Bank High School math teacher took advantage of a nice Monday afternoon, dropped three golf balls near a practice green and began chipping away. He just had to get to the golf course and sneak in a little practice, because cabin fever hit him hard all winter.
"The entire winter has been bad -- it's been rough -- and when you think you've got time to get in some play or practice, it turns bad," Allen said. "The Masters, seeing that last weekend, really gets me fired up for the season."
Allen, who has zipped around Brainerd with a smooth 5-under-par 67 as his career round, found himself not only cooped up by the weather, but moving into a new residence in Hixson for more than the last month also prevented him from playing and practicing. Monday, he chipped and putted alongside middle school students from Boyd-Buchanan.
"I just wanted to get out here and work on my short game," Allen said. "I wanted to do it when the weather is nice."
Allen found the game when the father of a high school friend took them to a golf course at a point in life when girlfriends and driving cars were more important than driving a golf ball.
He put his sticks away for nearly two years until he found friends in the Navy who also play the crazy game.
"We started talking about it then, and I've been playing ever since then," Allen said. "I played a lot when I was there and played all the military courses in Virginia when I was stationed in Norfolk. My favorite is Sewells Point Golf Course."
But with this year's weather, squishy weather, any course he can play is his favorite course.
-- David Uchiyama