I hate getting paired up with random people at a golf course.

It happens, and I get it, and at times I’ve had good experiences, although strangely I can’t name one right now.

I remember bad ones though, like the relative of “Karate Kid” Ralph Macchio, who literally didn’t stop talking for nine holes at Bay Meadows years ago and had me wanting to hurt him. My buddy Dan will back me up on this! He kept going on and on about this show that hadn’t come out yet called  “Cobra Kai,” which he said was going to be amazing. (Full confession, I did watch some of that show when it came out…)

But my attitude about being paired up changed a little on Monday, when a guy named Myron (didn’t get his last name) entered the picture.

Myron is 85 and started golfing, well – wait for it – LAST YEAR!

I asked the attendant at Queensbury Country Club if “the single” standing out there was going off before us. He said no and said he actually wanted to pair him with me and my 67-year-old buddy Vince Patton. He said he’d been waiting out there for a while hoping to get into a group.

I said “sure,” with some trepidation, but I knew Vince wouldn’t care.

We were immediately rewarded.

Myron was whipping out one-liners before we hit the first tee, making it known he was 85 and NOT good at golf. We told him not to worry because we’ve played a long time and still aren’t good.

When Vince revealed his age, Myron fired back, “I got shoes older than you!”

I loved it, and at that moment I knew that Myron wasn’t going to be our typical golf course plus one.

He wasn’t kidding about how he wasn’t good, however. It took him a lot of shots to get to the hole, but he was having fun and would pick up his ball when he’d had enough of that hole and was ready for the next.

He sunk a long putt on one hole and we cheered him on. I was also often finding myself telling him, “nice contact” and “you got some good run on that,” as his ball bounced down the dry fairway.

I tried to tinker with his stance a little, telling him to play the ball back in his stance a little more because he was topping a lot. I was hoping with that tip he’d crush the next one, but he topped it again.

Later in the round though, he strung together some solid shots that got some loft.

And Vince and I praised him up.

He also didn’t know golf etiquette, like parking the cart close to where you’re shooting from or close to the green to quickly get out of the way of the next group. Once when he was at the green and his cart was back in the fairway, I finished up and told him “I’ll run back and grab your cart while you finish up.”  He thanked me for the saved steps.

He also waited for us to tell him when to go. I’m guessing he was just being polite and not wanting to upset our round.

Through small talk, we found out he was a stockbroker from New York City who decided he’d had enough of that and in the 80’s moved north to Queensbury. He said he first played golf with his grandson but won’t anymore because he’s “too good.” Pretty sure he was kidding about not wanting to play with him again.

We talked about how the 19^th hole, a.k.a. the bar, is sometimes the best part of our golf game, to have a cold beer to drown our golf sorrows. Then Myron piped up something like, “more than one! One doesn’t do anything.”

He smiled when he said it, knowing he scored on that one.

When we finished, Myron gave us both a firm handshake and thanked us for letting him play with us telling us how much fun he had. It seemed so sincere and awesome.

“Maybe we’ll see you out here again,” I said.

“I hope so,” he said.

Myron never asked what I do for a living and I didn’t interject when he and Vince were chatting Wall Street. Maybe he’ll see this?

If you do read this Myron, know that you changed my attitude about being paired up with a stranger. And you might be my good luck charm too, because shooting a 43 – for me – is pretty darn good.