Fathers and Sons

[ztexz]

My dad taught me to play golf when I was six.  He was my first teacher, and, probably like a great many folks on here, we found that golf was the constant in our lives -- no matter the situation, even when I was a bratty teenager, we could always play or talk about golf.

I remember watching the '96 Masters (when I was most definitely a bratty 16 year-old) with him and being shocked at Greg Norman's epic collapse.  We spent many Sunday evenings watching the final holes of the weekly tournament.  And our best weekend together, two months before I got married and four months before he unexpectedly passed away, was at the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla.

After he died in 2008, my mother sent me a chest full of his stuff -- things she thought might have meaning to me.  I had sort of looked at it, but I had never dug through it.  I did today.

Inside I found scorecards from just regular old rounds we had played together, nothing special.  I found scorecards he had saved from the trip we took to Ireland, and scorecards from our trip along the Robert Trent Jones Trail.  I also found pictures, and little knicknacks, and a flag pin from the course where I grew up and where we spent uncountable hours on the course.

I miss my dad every day, but I guess I miss him a little bit more today.  But this is also why I love the game: even though my dad is up in Heaven now, I never feel closer than when I'm walking the back nine in the deepening dusk.  I can hear his voice, remember our putting contests from when I was a child, and see his big smile when he sank a long putt.

Fathers and Sons.

Thanks for listening.

[whoknows]

that is great, thank you for sharing........ My son is 7 and I absolutely love the time he and I share playing this wonderful game, for me and my dad it was hunting........... thanks again

[colin007]

Wow, that was quite moving. I wish I had something like that with my old man, but he isn't much of a communicator and he doesn't play golf. I envy what you had and offer my condolences for his loss. Great post. Thank you.

[number1hacker]

Love it. I hope my son loves golf as much as I do and we can have a relationship like that.

I'm sure he will do. Here's a video of him at 18 months..

[colin007]

  number1hacker said:

Love it. I hope my son loves golf as much as I do and we can have a relationship like that.  I'm sure he will do. Here's a video of him at 18 months..

That's awesome. I wish I had started that early.

[number1hacker]

  colin007 said:

That's awesome. I wish I had started that early.

Me too! I started at the age of 32...

[cipher]

All I have to say is wow, that was moving!

[Hammer 4]

Z, you are a very lucky dude, and your Dad was a very good father.

There's a moral in this shot story for all the Dad's and would be Dad's here. Your kids only are young for a short time, use that time to make them happy and secure, get involved with their activities. And for God sake, tell you love them...Often.

[Hardballs]

Lovely tribute! What a guy! I have lots of happy memories of my childhood, fortunately my fathers still with me, (well into his 70's though) and I already appreciate these memories! When people say .. Who's ya biggest hero? who inspires you? I can only think of him and I dread the day he passes! One thing I've learnt from him is the most valuable thing you can give you children is your time! I now consciously make efforts to give my children happy memories to look back on and just hope when they're older they'll feel a similar way about me! And they're starting golf this summer! Can't wait!

[Bing]

Really moving. I've just come back from the course with my 2 year old, he loves it and I love spending the time with him...... Likes the bunker 'sand pit' a little too much though!

[Spyder]

  Bing said:

Really moving. I've just come back from the course with my 2 year old, he loves it and I love spending the time with him...... Likes the bunker 'sand pit' a little too much though!

That's awesome! lol My two year old boy would take off running on me most likely. I do hope that he calms down a bit by Summer so that I can at least take him out with me once or twice to give mommy her free time to breathe a bit. I definitely plan on getting him some clubs next year too, which will probably be a junior MaxFli set or something.

Is your kiddo golfing yet? If not, when do you plan on getting him into the game? My son was having fun at 1 1/2 with some plastic clubs, but he quickly got annoyed with my "structure" of showing him how to line up and hit the ball. The clubs then became weapons and arm-extensions which he used to try and knock stuff off of counters that he wanted (typically cookies, chips, pop/beer cans, anything within the club's 2 foot reach!). Those things got thrown away when he whacked me in the face with his plastic iron while I was changing his diaper lol. Funny now, but it was not funny at the time explaining that my 1 year old kicked my ass and split my lip open.

[rightdraw]

I'm still lucky enough to get to play with my dad. Thank you for sharing!! Reminds me how lucky I am.

[MS256]

Great story. Thanks for sharing it. Reminds me of all of the time my dad spent with me. I don't remember him ever doing anything that was for himself, and everything he did involved us kids. I missed out on a lot with my oldest two kids because I was always at work. Back then I had a 7 day a week job and almost every day I worked 16 hours. By the time my youngest was born I had wised up enough to know that there were more important things than money. I still worked 7 days a week but only 8 hours a day and always stayed on 3rd shift. That way I never really missed anything except sleep. Every place I went (which was always something to do with baseball or football) my son was with me. A lady I knew at the ball park used to always see me holding him and shake her head and say "You've got a friend for life." She was right about that.

[Bing]

  Spyder said:

That's awesome! lol My two year old boy would take off running on me most likely. I do hope that he calms down a bit by Summer so that I can at least take him out with me once or twice to give mommy her free time to breathe a bit. I definitely plan on getting him some clubs next year too, which will probably be a junior MaxFli set or something. Is your kiddo golfing yet? If not, when do you plan on getting him into the game? My son was having fun at 1 1/2 with some plastic clubs, but he quickly got annoyed with my "structure" of showing him how to line up and hit the ball. The clubs then became weapons and arm-extensions which he used to try and knock stuff off of counters that he wanted (typically cookies, chips, pop/beer cans, anything within the club's 2 foot reach!). Those things got thrown away when he whacked me in the face with his plastic iron while I was changing his diaper lol. Funny now, but it was not funny at the time explaining that my 1 year old kicked my ass and split my lip open.

My course has a few different practice areas and the one in the picture is a little far from the car park so doesn't get used much. I take him there and let him knock a few about. My coach who is a County youth coach told me to just let him do what he wants and don't try too much 'teaching' as it is all about improving his hand eye coordination and him having fun. He loves it now and instantly turns hyper when I mention going to the course! I just hope in years to come it brings him as many happy memories as the OP, that's what it's all about really.

[boogielicious]

Beautiful story @ztexz .

[inthehole]

  ztexz said:

My dad taught me to play golf when I was six.  He was my first teacher, and, probably like a great many folks on here, we found that golf was the constant in our lives -- no matter the situation, even when I was a bratty teenager, we could always play or talk about golf.

I remember watching the '96 Masters (when I was most definitely a bratty 16 year-old) with him and being shocked at Greg Norman's epic collapse.  We spent many Sunday evenings watching the final holes of the weekly tournament.  And our best weekend together, two months before I got married and four months before he unexpectedly passed away, was at the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla.

After he died in 2008, my mother sent me a chest full of his stuff -- things she thought might have meaning to me.  I had sort of looked at it, but I had never dug through it.  I did today.

Inside I found scorecards from just regular old rounds we had played together, nothing special.  I found scorecards he had saved from the trip we took to Ireland, and scorecards from our trip along the Robert Trent Jones Trail.  I also found pictures, and little knicknacks, and a flag pin from the course where I grew up and where we spent uncountable hours on the course.

I miss my dad every day, but I guess I miss him a little bit more today.  But this is also why I love the game: even though my dad is up in Heaven now, I never feel closer than when I'm walking the back nine in the deepening dusk.  I can hear his voice, remember our putting contests from when I was a child, and see his big smile when he sank a long putt.

Fathers and Sons.

Thanks for listening.

nice story ... I didn't start playing golf until much later in life, but every sentiment applies to me and my dad, except need to insert bass fishing instead of golf.     I grew up wading the local river - we would go a couple nights after school & on weekends, graduated to long weekends on the myriad of lakes in upstate NY, St. Lawrence & Canada.     Later, I got seriously into tournament fishing, but we always fished together on non-tournament weekends.     Even when my dad was old & not well, he was always the first one up well before first light & NEVER was the first one to say, lets pack it in after a long morning on the water.     We are truly the fortunate ones to have had fathers who spent all that time with us doing what we love ...

[whoknows]

As I stated in an above post, my son is 7, we spend a lot of time on the golf course, what I didn't mention is that he has a cognitive learning disability, it was actually his idea to start playing, I had played a little years before his birth, not enough to really make any progress but enough to know that I was going to be totally addicted, one sunday afternoon we are watching football and they show guys playing golf, he looks up and says " Dad, can we try golf " to which I look to his mother and say " You heard that... right, Did you hear that "........ LOL This will be our second year of playing and we both have a lot of fun with it, ............. We are out on our usual late evening 9 and we see a much older gentleman, looked to be around 80, playing with another older gentleman, As it turns out , they were a father and son too.......... we get out on the course, nothing more has been said about them and a couple holes into our round, my son says " Dad........ when you get old, I will bring you to play golf , too"

[ztexz]

  whoknows said:

my son says " Dad........ when you get old, I will bring you to play golf , too"

Love it!

And, thank you all for the kind words.