Teeing Off

JP has been bitten by the golf bug this summer.  He comes by it naturally, I think, given that Jude's dad, Jim, played golf in college at Loyola in New Orleans and, later, at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville.  At one point in time, Jim was a scratch golfer (or close to it), which is a rare accomplishment for a recreational player. 

JP inherited a lot of Jim's personality, I think, which is a good thing.  Quiet, steady, calm, confident, always in control of his emotions.  All of these character traits are helpful on the golf course, it seems to me.  My guess is that golf is a sport that JP is going to take up seriously in the future and probably play all of his life, long after high school and college.  Golf is just a good match for JP.

Earlier in the summer, JP started playing at McCabe Golf Course with Wynn, a friend from MBA.  When Wynn left for camp, JP kept playing a couple of times a week.  Jude or I dropped him off in the morning and he walked nine holes, practiced chipping, then Jude picked him up.  The life of a 14 year old in the summer, right?  Not bad.

Recently, JP and Wynn played in a disc golf tournament at MBA to raise money for the Cumberland River Compact.  Somehow, they managed to win a raffle in which the prize was paid entry for four player in a golf tournament at the Hermitage (also a fundraiser for Cumberland River Compact).  

JP didn't really understand how the golf tournament worked or what he had won but Jude and I decided to let him try to figure it out.  He e-mailed the tournament director to tell her he had won the raffle.  In the e-mail, he quite earnestly told her he was 14 years old and couldn't afford the $1,000 entry fee.  She replied, of course, that by winning the raffle at the disc golf tournament, he WON the entry fee.  In other words, he could put together a team of four players and play in the tournament for free.  

It's been funny hearing about him reaching out to his buddies to find a foursome.  After a multitude of text messages and telephone calls, Jack, Benjy, and Wynn agreed to play.  Team MBA.

The boys' parents dropped them off at our house, this morning, at 6:45 a.m.  The boys loaded four sets of golf clubs into my SUV and I drove them to the Hermitage Golf Course, where they were set to play the links course (The President's Reserve).  We called my partner, Mark Puryear, on the way there so he could give them some tips for playing in a scramble format for the tournament.  

We arrived early and as the boys checked in, I discovered they were minor celebrities among the staff at the Cumberland River Compact.  They were very excited to meet the 14-year old boys set to play in the golf tournament with a bunch of well heeled, middle aged lawyers, doctors, and businessmen.  The boys were wide eyed, for sure, as they signed in, bought mulligan packages, and surveyed the scene through their relatively innocent eyes.  

I walked them outside and helped them search for the golf carts with their names on them.  I saw four sets of eyes widen, as the boys realized they would be allowed to drive their own golf carts, unsupervised.  This was a development they hadn't foreseen, as McCabe Golf Course - and all others, I suppose - requires golfers to be 16 to drive a golf cart.  

The takeaway for the boys, I think, is that they had arrived.  Grownups, at last.  Playing with other men in a golf tournament, driving their own golf carts, having breakfast for free, coolers in the back of their golf carts (for bottled water, not beer), etc.  In other words, the whole shebang.

I couldn't help but feel, as I drove away, that this morning marked a passage in time, for JP, and for his friends.  Playing in a golf tournament, by themselves, and just figuring it out as they go along.  That's what it's all about. 

I'm a little jealous, to be honest.  I have played golf.  But for the summer after law school while I studies for the bar exam, I've never played golf with any regularity and I don't play any more.  To be on the course, with three of your friends, playing golf on a summer morning, at age 14, no less.  It doesn't get much better than that.

As I shut it down and head to work, I just got a text from JP.  The boys got a par on the first hole (#2).  

What a day.