April 20 was an important day for people in the egg and pastel-dye industries. To celebrate, the Sunday Morning Group gave one extra handicap stroke to every player who teed off with an appropriately decorated golf ball. Last-minute scrawls with a Sharpie didn’t count; to qualify, a ball had to be something you wouldn’t be ashamed to show the Easter Bunny.

I did my decorating the night before, with something called Angelus Acrylic Leather Paint. It isn’t formulated for golf balls, probably, but it was the only thing I could find in the basement that was in the right colors. The two balls I painted were still tacky in the morning, twelve hours later, and the bunny stickers were coming up at the edges. I think the bunnies cost me some yardage on my opening drive—on our sixth hole, a par 5—but the wet paint helped me on my third shot, from a greenside bunker, because sand got embedded in the paint and kept the ball from rolling off the green. 

We may have to try that next year.