Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2012 - 50

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Capping Off a Good Year
Great memories are to be made on the golf course,
and they don't always show up on the scorecard.
By Jon Roe
W
atching the heartwarming victory of Ernie
Els and the heart-wrenching demise of
Adam Scott in this year's Open Championship
brought to mind recollections of a first and only inperson
visit to an Open Championship.
Indeed, watching each and every Open since that 1997
Championship gets the mind racing back to that week at
Royal Troon, and especially a late afternoon spent at a nearby
links course, Western Gailes.
It was more than a golf writer from Minnesota watching
Tom Lehman, the accomplished golfer from Alexandria, finish
his year as the Open champion and enjoying the affection
he received from spectators who had little or no idea where
Minnesota-much less Alexandria-was located.
But as much as being at an Open carved memories into the golf
writer's brain, it was a round of golf at Western Gailes that made
an even greater impression. A fellow writer, Jeff Williams of Long
Island-based Newsday, had secured a late afternoon tee time at the
course, which had served as a qualifying site for the Open at Troon.
He extended an invitation to make it a twosome.
The Minnesota golfer arrived at the clubhouse with Williams
and was greeted by the club's manager. The manager presented
an imposing vision-polished black shoes, pin-striped trousers,
starched white shirt, pearl grey vest, pearl gray tie and black tuxedo
jacket. The Gopher golfer was attired in golf shoes, Bermuda
shorts, golf shirt, and baseball-style cap.
As greetings and pleasantries were exchanged, the manager kept
glancing toward the Gopher golfer's nose and forehead. Enough
times that the golfer suspected he might have a piece of lunch still
in his teeth or something worse out of place on his face.
Finally, the manager could wait no longer. He extended his
right hand, index finger curled, and adroitly flicked at the visor
of the golfer's cap.
" No caps in the clubhouse, " the manager intoned.
Apologies followed profusely. Not to worry, the manager said,
and escorted the pair of golfers to a clubhouse pub for a pint.
He pointed out a window where the Society of Golfers was finishing
its round. Armed with hickory-shafted clubs and attire from
golf's earlier days in Scotland, the Society seemed to make the
clock spin wildly backwards.
And then the manager directed the twosome to the first tee.
" Have a good day, " he said. The sun was shining brightly above the
Firth of Clyde, the winds having taken the day off, and the course
belonged only to the twosome.
Four holes out, then nine holes back down along the firth, and
48
MINNESOTAGOLFER Fall 2012
He extended his right hand and
adroitly flicked at the visor of the
golfer's cap.
then five holes back to the clubhouse. There are no words for a
golfer to use to adequately describe that late afternoon. But a couple
of hours later, the golfer called home.
" I just had the most wonderful time I've had with my clothes
on in the last 20 years, " he said.
Those kinds of things happen to us golfers a lot. Maybe not
every round we play, of course, but more often than we have any
right to expect. The sun is out, or not. The wind is calm, or not.
The course belongs to only us, or not. At Western Gailes in Scotland,
or a public facility in a Twin Cities suburb.
Something similar happened to the golfer writer in 2012. A
Father's Day round with two sons. Such rounds are almost nonexistent
nowadays. The sons are each closing in on 40, they have
careers and wives and kids, and there's little time to tee it up with
Dad. Just as Dad was too busy when he was their age.
But in June of 2012 there was time for all of them to tee off together.
We talked and joked and enjoyed a day on the golf course.
And Dad remembered to take off his cap in the clubhouse.
Hope all Minnesota golfers had good days in 2012-and that
there will be opportunities for more in 2013.
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Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2012

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