The backyard rink died a couple weeks ago but the golf season is still likely a few weeks away (please no e-mails from Florida telling me yet again that you can golf there all year long - WE GET IT ALREADY), although every time I drive by Nonesuch River I half expect to see a foursome dragging their pull carts through the snow. My tiny golf-addled brain has a hard time accepting that I could golf in January in sub-freezing temps (as does my wife) but that I can't tee it up when it's 60 degrees. But see, that's exactly why I could never live in Florida or Southern California. The anticipation is half the fun. Well, maybe not half.

How many of you have acquired new golf equipment since you last played? Shiny new balls for Christmas, a driver from the Boston Golf Expo, or a new wedge you bought online that your spouse doesn't even know about yet? Most of you have your hands up. Did you play indoors on a simulator in some dark building or take a trip south? If you didn't, you are probably a miserable person to be around and, even if you did, you're still chomping at the bit like a sailor about to hit dry land after 3 months at sea.

This is time of year where you're setting unreasonable goals - like no 3 putts this year or you'll play without beer - that will blow up by your second hole. The point is that it's OK to dream and without an off-season there is no time to think big. Right now, we're all scratch golfers who are watching Tiger throw up a 43 and thinking we could do that. Reality will smack us all soon enough and we'll settle back down to be the golfers we were last year and the year before that because we will continue to search for answers with equipment and gadgets as opposed to lessons and practice. Why? Because lessons and practice aren't as much fun as playing and most of us golf to have fun - not get better.

So enjoy the next few weeks and don't bother bringing out the new shoes for awhile.