Josh Witherspoon.Josh Witherspoon arrived at Moccasin Bend Golf Course just after 8 a.m. looking to play 18 holes with a buddy.
He was intent on playing, so set that he piddled around the clubhouse for more than two hours without taking a single stroke.
Weather forced him inside. He didn't mind. He would have played in casual rain, but scattered lightning strikes made it unsafe to play.
"I would play in usual rain because I'm not scared of water," Witherspoon said. "I'm a fairly good swimmer."
The 30-year-old said this is his third summer of playing the game and he's pulled out an umbrella on the course twice in that time.
"It's different because you get wet, your ball gets wet, your clubs get wet," said Witherspoon, who plays a few times a month at Chattanooga-area public courses. "It's OK as long as you're patient."
Only a handful of other golfers milled about during the bad weather. Even the hint of rain scares off a good percentage of duffers. But not Witherspoon.
"A hobby like this, you have to enjoy it and you can't let the elements prevent you from doing what you love," he said. "You just need patience."
He had plenty of patience last Tuesday, a trait he's developed since the first time he swung a club and sent the ball straight.
"I never really had an interest in the game growing up," Witherspoon said. "But you get older, your friends start playing and I got hooked."