Golf:

When I called Head Professional Brad Booth to see if I could get a tee time for my brother and I at Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club, it didn’t sound good.

My brother was visiting from Colorado and wanted to play golf. He had never played Costa Mesa before so I thought this would be perfect.

The day we picked however, Los Lagos was having a scramble at 10 a.m. and the course would be tied up all day. The overflow on the shorter Mesa Linda course was going to make for a long afternoon.

Booth had a suggestion. He said if we wanted to come out early we could play Los Lagos, we just had to be off the course before 10 a.m.

The plan was to wake up at 6 a.m. and be at the course by 6:30. Well the last time I was awake at 6 a.m. my mom was giving birth to me. I did manage to arise by 7 and we made it to the course 20 minutes later.

We teed off at 7:30 with no one in front of us and played briskly. We didn’t reach another group until the 14th hole and they let us pass them on the next hole. We finished the round at 9:35 and both of us shot our best scores of the week.

“It is great playing early when no one is around,” Booth said. “The guys that play early don’t waste a lot of time.”

They are classified as rabbits and it is a unique group of golfers that choose this way of playing. They often arrive at the golf course before the sun does, waiting for Booth to arrive. If Booth is caught up in traffic, some of them will tee off before he gets there and then pay him when they finish the round.

“They are regulars,” Booth said. “They like playing fast and want to get the round done as quick as possible.”

There is a code to being a rabbit as I learned talking to a few of them. It is a club that only discriminates in one criterion: speed. No lollygagging is tolerated and others will quickly and bluntly point it out to an offending golfer.

Not everyone is cut out to be a rabbit. Most golfers don’t like the feeling of being rushed. Funny thing is my brother and I never felt like that. We just played at a nice tempo and didn’t do any of the delays that golfers often find themselves doing.

So to prepare golfers who aspire to be rabbits here are some tips that will make them eligible to join the club.

Speed is the key when playing an early round of golf and to achieve that, some of the traditional etiquette needs to be ignored. The first is honor on the tee. Forget that, play ready golf. If you had a triple bogey on the last hole and are ready to hit on the next, swing away.

Another good way to save some time is do the same in the fairway and the putting green. There is no reason why a person shouldn’t hit a golf ball if it is not in the line of sight of another golfer. Same goes for putting.

Rabbits are surprisingly quicker when not in a golf cart, but you can use the cart to your advantage. My brother is a lefty and hits what I will charitably call a power fade. He is often in the far left of the fairway or rough. I am occasionally in the middle of the fairway. I would drop my brother off in the cart because I usually out-drive him and then head to my ball. I would hit and if he wasn’t already at the cart I would circle back and get him.

A couple other tips for wanna-be rabbits: one practice swing; no plumb bobbing from three feet; and definitely no waggling. Being a rabbit can be fun, I know I am glad I am in the “group.”