A Beautiful Day to Quit Golf

 

A Beautiful Day to Quit Golf

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 7, 2026

Thursday night we met Luke and the Walters at Crooked Pint in Savage for bingo, which sounds relaxing until you realize every number called that isn’t on your card feels like a personal attack. None of us came close to winning, but the urge to yell “BINGO!” kept building inside me like a medical condition. I’m pretty sure later that night I woke up in a cold sweat and screamed it into the darkness just to get it out of my system, because it sure as heck wasn’t happening during the actual games.

Saturday I drove down to Clear Lake, Iowa to golf at Oak Hills with my high school buddies “Krazy” Kory Madson and a pair of Jasons, Davis and Alexander. It was one of those perfect summer days where the weather was beautiful, the company was great, and for a brief shining moment I was able to pretend I belonged on a golf course. History would prove otherwise, but at this point we were still enjoying the fantasy.

I really noticed something on this trip. I’ve been playing golf with these guys for about 40 years now, and somehow they all got pretty good while I’m still out there duffing shots, launching worm burners, and swinging with all the confidence of a man trying to kill a mosquito with a shovel. So after a long and terrible career, I have decided to retire from golf. I know this may shock the sports world, but God did not make me to be a golfer. He made me to ride in the cart, get a little rowdy, and provide the kind of moral support nobody actually requested.

Normally I get together with these guys in the fall for Jason Alexander’s golf tournament, so it was great to see them in early summer when my golf game still had plenty of time to embarrass itself before Labor Day. I rode in the cart with Jason and really enjoyed catching up. He spent a lot of years in enterprise software before retiring a few years ago, and now he’s focused on entrepreneurial activities, which has pretty much been my dream for years. Retire early, build something fun, and hopefully avoid meetings where someone says “circle back” with a straight face.

One of Jason’s new entrepreneurial projects is Dryp Golf, where he’s starting to sell golf club covers. This putter cover is his first release, made intentionally for the center shaft medium putter, and I have to admit I was fascinated by the whole thing. He just received his first batch of inventory, and demand is already strong, so if you want one, you better grab it quick. Limited quantities of Early Birdie pricing are available, which is a much better use of golf terminology than anything I was doing on the course.

Jason’s other venture is Surf & Serenity House, a walkable vacation rental right in the heart of Clear Lake, which is honestly one of my favorite towns on the planet. It’s a two-bedroom, two-bath home built for couples, small families, two-couple weekends, or girls’ trips, and the location looks pretty ideal for bouncing between the lakefront, downtown, and the Surf District. The reviews are already glowing, which doesn’t surprise me because Jason has always been the kind of guy who pays attention to details. Meanwhile, my entrepreneurial gift is mostly buying domain names and then ignoring them for eight years.

After golf we stopped at Lakeside Landing for food and a drink before I headed back to Minnesota. It’s right on the lake, which made it the perfect place to sit, relax, and pretend I had just completed a serious athletic event instead of mostly riding in a cart. The food was good, the view was beautiful, and for a few peaceful minutes, everything felt exactly like summer is supposed to feel.

Traditionally when we’re in Clear Lake, we eat at the Other Place, or the OP as the locals call it because apparently saying two full words is exhausting. But Kory really wanted to eat somewhere on the water, so we ended up at Lakeside Landing instead. It seemed like a great decision at the time. Beautiful view, good food, cold drinks, and absolutely no warning sign that this innocent little change in plans was about to make my next week significantly more annoying.

Some of you may remember I’m missing a front tooth, although you haven’t seen much evidence of that here because I had a temporary tooth in a retainer that looked real enough for photos. While we were eating, I wrapped it in a napkin like I’ve done plenty of times before, only this time a gust of wind picked up the napkin, launched my temporary tooth into Clear Lake, and sent it straight to whatever underwater kingdom keeps sunglasses, boat keys, and bad decisions.

Jason was incredibly kind and actually waded around trying to find it for me, but the bottom was rocky and the lake had clearly already claimed its prize. I really appreciated him trying. I’ll get another one, but the timing is spectacularly terrible because tomorrow morning I fly to Vegas to spend a week with 4,000 Oracle coworkers for meetings, dinners, and professional schmoozing. On the bright side, I’ve looked different my entire life, so I guess this is just another chapter in that book. Either that, or I’ll be joining Jason Alexander in retirement a little sooner than expected.