That old feeling

• By Charlie Rymer
• Sep 15, 2010 1:03 AM ET

I never thought it would happen to me. Getting old, that is. I came to that realization last week while I was out on the road covering the NW Arkansas Championship on the LPGA.

I was on the range chatting it up with the players and I looked a little rough. Rougher than normal for sure. I hadn't shaved in a few days due to having sun damage frozen from a few places on my face and arms. To be perfectly honest, I looked like I had been dragged face down behind a car through a gravel parking lot. 

And that's when it happened. Christina Kim asked why I hadn't worn sun screen when I was a kid. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Sun screen didn't exist when I was a kid! I'm over the hill! Washed up!  Done!  When I was a kid all we had was zinc oxide. The only folks that used that nasty white goo were life guards. And even though I can float like a champ I was certainly never a life guard. I thought I was gonna cry – and I haven't had a good cry since February. I looked up and down the range and noticed that only one player there had ever played a wood made of wood (sorry,  Juli Inkster).

It was a depressing moment. I started thinking about growing up in South Carolina and being made to walk to school barefooted in the rain. Up hill. Both ways. Grape soda was a nickel.  And so was a Moon Pie. It was a simpler time. The family would gather round the radio at night ... and then I came out of my funk. A searing bolt of lightening crossed my feeble brain. I suddenly realized it was nearly 4:30 p.m. and I had better get to the cafeteria at the mall before 5 while the early bird was still on.