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Earlier this summer, I entered a sweepstakes for a round of golf at TPC Sawgrass, home of course to The Players Championship. This has been on my bucket list for quite some time. Imagine my shock as well as suspicion when received an email that I won. I called the number on my card to make sure it wasn’t a scam. Being in the world of IT, I see so many scams that I’m constantly suspicious. As it turns out, it was legit! They flew me to Jacksonville on 12/10 where I am met with a guy holding a sign who loaded my clubs into a black SUV and drove me to the resort. My friend, Billy, has gotten me on many very nice courses over the years like Oakland Hills and Valhalla. I was able to invite a +1, so I was happy to be able to be able to reciprocate. After checking in and having some hors d’oeuvres, we headed over to the course to soak it in and do some putting on the practice green. It’s been a while since I played Bermuda, so it took some time to get a feel for the grain again. They were much slower than I expected for a championship course, but I’m sure they are much faster for the tournament. Q School was going on there at the same time, so we got to see some of the players trying to get their tour card. That was pretty cool! The next morning, we headed to the course bright and early for breakfast, drinks and some time on the practice facilities. We were then treated to a short game clinic with Trevor Immelman and Kira Dixon. They are both awesome people. Trevor walked up straight from the car and pitches one to a few feet without any warmup. Show off! 😃 Now for the golf part. As many of you know, I’ve been battling a bad knee since an accident at work about 5 years ago, so I don’t play much anymore. I was hopeful since the week prior, I had a gel injection that supposedly works better than the steroids. No such luck. I wasn’t able to finish several holes, and I was in so much pain, I was almost in tears. I battled through though. I shot a 92, but don’t get too excited. This was a shamble format with a double bogey max on each hole. I estimate I would have been over 120 had I played my own ball. One of the guys in the other foursome had to have a sore back at the end of the day from carrying us. I did crush one on #10 that our caddy said was in the “Pro Zone”. He got a good tip just for saying that. I give some credit to the “Sawgrass Splash” drink they served us at the turn. Unfortunately I pushed my second into the junk and ended up taking a legit double. When we get to 13, there stands Trevor on the tee. We got to chat a bit while waiting on the group ahead of us to putt out. It turns out he lived pretty close to me when I lived in Winter Park, FL, but I’m sure his house was quite a bit bigger than the one I was renting. I hit my shot a bit thin, but it ended up pin high on the right fringe. He hit a shot for our group, and it was an out 10’ short and downhill. I liked my putt from the fringe, but the others wanted to play from his shot. Nobody made it. We started on #3, so thankfully we were good and warmed up by the time we got to 17. This was the hole I really wanted to conquer. Several people from the GM Rewards Program that we met were standing there watching. The others seemed nervous, but I like a crowd. I stepped up and hit one to about 12’ left the birdie putt a tad short. I was happy with a tap in par. Billy put his into the pond, so I claim a major victory. We finished the last 3 holes after that which I finished with 3 bogeys. I was grinning from ear to ear even though I was in misery. This is certainly one for the memory books, and one that I plan to return to in 5-6 after they will do a knee replacement. I would have loved to play this course 10-15 years ago.

The golf world lost one of the greats last weekend. By great, I am not talking about fame or talent, but simply love of the game. He wasn’t very fond of the rules though, because he pretty much made his own. I am referring to my old man, Tom Knick. He lost his battle to cancer last Saturday, 1/3/2026. He battled several rounds of lung cancer over the years, but this time it spread and took him out at the age of 81. I remember following my dad and grandpa around Penn Terra GC as a young lad. Dad would let me hit my own ball, but would often pick it up and take it to where his ball was. He HATED slow play. He would get aggravated with his golf league partner for the last decade or so because he would clean his club after a shot before putting it back in his bag. Dad thought this took too much time. Patience was not one of his virtues. After retiring from GM in his early 50s, dad worked and played golf at Beechwood GC in Arcanum, OH almost exclusively. He was already retired at the age I am now. He also worked at the local hardware store in the winter. As I already mentioned, he played the game the way he thought it should be played. The last time I played with dad, my son was playing with us. Dad’s eyes were getting pretty bad. He would hit one down the middle of the fairway and think it was a bad shot. He would be pleasantly surprised when we showed him where his ball ended up. You can still enjoy a good shot even when you can’t see it I guess. My mom tasked me with going through his golf stuff. He had an old golf bag full of every club he ever owned up in their attic. It also had ancient golf balls in it. Memories came rushing back when I saw his old McGregor woods and irons, the clubs I used to take over to our community park during summer break and spent hours hitting balls back and forth. This is where I learned bad habits that inflict my swing to this very day. I loved it though. I don’t like to keep things for the sake of keeping things, but I just may need to hang on to these. Also in dad’s golf stash, I also found dozens of ball markers and probably 200 tees. In even found 2 metal golden tees. I doubt they’re real gold, I will keep one and give my son the other. Fools gold. In dad’s golf bag were his old Ping Zing 1 and 3 woods. He played these for many years. I think I will need to hang on to these as well. Golf is full of memories. If you still have your dad, uncle, best friend from high school or work that you played with over the years, take whatever opportunity you can find to play with them when it warms back up. You never know. It might be the last time.