My family and I just returned from our annual summer vacation in Hawaii, where my husband and I played golf nearly every day. Cool? Oh yes.

And one of those days we played in the group in front of a certain rock star by the name of Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper, you’re thinking, the ghoulish shock rocker known for platinum albums like “Welcome to My Nightmare"–he’s a golfer?

Yes, as many people in the golf world are aware, he’s a good one. He picked up golf 20 years ago and now credits it with saving his life. His autobiography, published earlier this year, isn’t titled Alice Cooper, Rock Monster. It’s called Alice Cooper, Golf Monster. In it he lays out his “12 steps to becoming a golf addict.” His handicap is now in the single digits, and he plays in and hosts his own celebrity golf tournaments, with proceeds going to a Christian youth center called the Solid Rock Foundation.

And I played in front of him. I don’t care who you are, that’s cool right there.

The course was moving slowly that day, so we got a good look at his game. It was fine - I witnessed him drive the green on a par 4, for example. But what I found most interesting was his perpetual search for lost balls. Long waits on the tee box didn’t faze him in the least—he’d just use the time to scout the surrounding lava rocks and ice plants.

Is he that cheap? I wondered. Quite the contrary—when we all arrived back at the clubhouse, his cart was full of found balls—literally, in the hundreds. “I donate them to junior golf programs,” he explained. And then, to really cap off the cool experience of rubbing elbows with the guy who made the Guinness Book of World Records for playing to the largest indoor crowd ever, he handed my husband and me each a Titleist. “Here’s a lucky ball for you,” he said. And it was lucky - it even had a little green shamrock drawn on. Too cool.

Was it a coincidence that two days later I stood on the 16th tee box at Wailea Emerald - the white tees, I should add—and hit a perfect 8-iron that bounced, rolled, and then dropped in the hole? It was my first hole-in-one. Way, way cool.

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