No More Loops

The player as a young man/boy, at Pinehurst

So eventually in the career of an accidental caddie, be it dad or mom, the player will move on to the next tour where the caddie can not follow. And so it was, last Friday, with the summer tournaments completed (well as many as we could do anyway), that my player, Luke, left for Florida, where the Fall semester at Florida Gulf Coast shortly begins. He took his golf clubs, golf shoes, and golf balls, and left a messy room, some stray laundry, and an accidental caddie who now has to go looking for another line of work. No more planning out tournament schedules, signing up and paying entry fees, scheduling practice rounds, setting alarms for early tee times, waking up, waking player up, last minute check of weather report, piling in the car after doing inventory, stopping for on the go breakfast, getting to course, on the bag for 18 or sometimes 36, then dealing with the elation or depression that follows a competitive round, and then repeat. No that's over for now. No stress about conflicting schedule, no waking up early, no dealing with inclement weather and keeping clubs dry, and no dealing with delicate psyche.  Now it's just me, free to do what I want, when I want, no golf playing anchor to keep me in port. On my own.
Yippee!  Yippee...

Getting Personal

After a considerable hiatus, I am returning to the fold, but time has passed, life has moved forward, occasionally intervened, and altered things and thus I am altering my perspective on this blog, at least I'm going to try it out... First the causes: the object of my accidental caddyism is now competing in college and on the adult circuit in amateur and occasionally pro (as am) events. And his figurative caddy, me, has been seriously on the bag (for the uninitiated, that means I'm caddying) for the past year and particularly this summer as Luke (the object) has had a full schedule in NY met events. And in the middle of this, I come up with pinched nerve resulting from apparently (still testing) a herniated disk in my C7 C8 vertabrae (I know, more information than I wanted too), so now I'm sidelined as a caddy, playing partner, and throw in minimal use of left hand, ie. no left hand typing, guitar, piano, and oh what else do I need that paw for?? But I digress from the matter at hand.  Luke is in the midst of a, if not breakthrough summer, at least an enormously encouraging summer, making every qualifier, every cut, and throw in a T-8 at NJ State Am, T-16 at prestigious Ike Championship, and T-32 at NJ State Open Championship.  Oh and did I mention that his opening round 66 at NJ Am was the lowest in its 41 year history. But this blog was not created as a means to hype Luke or promote his resume, but rather to provide info and explore the why's, how's, and whatever's in between the posting of scores and raising trophies overhead.

So how did we get to this summer? Well, briefly recapped, after a successful fall Freshman campaign at Bucknell, Luke woke up on a chilly November morning in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, looked around at the gray sky, the frozen tundra that was the golf course west of his dorm, and the golf team that had hung up their golf shoes for the season to focus entirely on academics until spring thaw, and thought: This is not where I want to be.  A few phone calls and emails later, and then some more phone calls and emails later between Luke's mom and me (did I mention we've been divorced since Luke was 13?), we (Mom and me) mobilized to rectify the situation.  Flash forward to March madness and Luke's new alma mater, Florida Gulf Coast University, is lighting it up on the hardwood like never before.  but that's not the best part of this story. That goes to a kid wanting to live golf who is now where he wants to be, in an environment where golf is a way of life, where you wake up to golf weather every day, where there is an emphasis on playing golf and/or careering in golf. And not only is the golf better, but everything is better, social life gets better, grades get better.  We have, relatively speaking, personal harmony, because he's doing and being what he wants.  Walked a course last week with the father of a 26 year old who was now an assistant pro. A few years before, his kid, directionless after college asked dad what he should do with his life. Dad said, well I'm an engineer but not loving what I do these days,  so don't ask me.  You should do what you want. So he did.  Makes sense huh?

New Life For This Blog

OK.  I have resurrected this blog from being buried alive under my corporate blog  Well buried alive is a little dramatic, more like buried like the ancient civilizations built new civilizations upon old ones, only to be discovered by some real life Indiana Jones, years later. Again, not so dramatic in this case, but I do have admin control and, I think, the will, to post again. The subject or rather the object of accidental caddie is now a rising sophomore in college and there is much to tell from the perspective of this accidental caddie.  Stay tuned...