- November 23, 2024
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I’m not alone in saying that sports are my way of life.
I was on skis at the age of 4. Two weeks after graduating high school, I was asked to volunteer for the Army Ski Troops in Colorado as an instructor.
“What if I don’t volunteer?” I asked the major. He replied: “You won’t like where you go.”
I played football as a receiver, but war shortened that phase of life. Basketball, of course, was a high school must, and I thought after whacking a few home runs, baseball was a career.
I was wrong.
I tried hockey, but when I found out that the Canadian students skating faster backward than I could forward, it was time for me to head for the broadcast booth.
Golf was offered to me at war’s end, but I turned it down. As students here contend at times, it was a sissy sport.
Suddenly, the light came on one day.
To this day when putting my head on the pillow at night, I say thank you, Lord, for giving me the greatest sport ever invented.
The Sludgehammer Group was a blessing in 1997 — and still is. These are nice people, including George Rhatigan, Jake Jacoby, Hall-of-Famer Bob Ross, Jim Canfield, Tony Maltese, Stew Manthey and more.
I look around and think of the good fortune I have of being friends with Harry Davis, Ray Epperson, Mike Joyce, Willard Anderson, Jerry Edwards, Bob Schultz, Dale Bell, David Ragsdale, Jack Leide and many more.
This could only happen in golf.
And then there are the ladies. I don’t profess to know many personally, but I’m in constant admiration of the good things they do to make golf better. Knowing Helen Perlman, Sue Gronwoldt, Gerry Bell, Deb Crowley, Carol Ross, Marcia Hayton or Joyce Chmel makes my week.
Chmel, I’m told, is one terrific golfer. I do know she is one great person and giving her all to boost the upcoming Trinity Challenge, which is May 26, at the Pine Course. (Don’t forget, you can still sign up to play!)
Truthfully, we all can’t play super golf, but who cares? Take Gene Thrower, who wrongly thinks she is not good at the sport. I’ve seen her come off a Nine and Dine event with enough good holes to make her team a leader.
The bottom line is this: Every one of the ladies and men on the golf course today enjoy the greatest sport ever invented, and I’m the luckiest of all because I get the sheer enjoyment of writing about these wonderful people.
