Who golfs? Eric Buchanan, regularly with his wife

Eric Buchanan doesn't play golf to spend a few hours with his buddies. He plays golf to spend time with his wife Meg.

"It's a chance to relax together, and she keeps telling me that I'm lucky because my wife plays golf with me," Buchanan said. "I tell her that she's lucky I play golf with her, because she always beats me."

Buchanan sat in a gazebo off to the side of a putting green at Black Creek Club on Tuesday and thought about the last time he played golf without Meg. He figured it was about two years ago.

He said she played on the boys' team in high school and he's a plus-20-handicap who hadn't received a formal golf lesson in more than 15 years until earlier this summer.

They attended a weekend golf academy at Pinehurst, N.C., as a learning vacation - his first modern golf-swing education.

"That was fantastic," Buchanan said. "Now I'm learning to try and apply a real golf swing on a golf course, which I didn't have before I went over there."

But one aspect wasn't so fun for him.

"We were split into groups to work on our swings first, and I'm off to the side and nobody is working with me," Buchanan said. "I look over and all three swing instructors are standing behind her with their arms crossed saying, 'That's a really nice swing.' But I've over there with no real idea how to hold a club and nobody is paying attention to me.

"But I improved more than her that week."

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