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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.

As I approached the age of 70, my thoughts turned toward shooting my age. It sort of becomes a race against time and the erosion of one’s golf skills. At age 70, I managed a 1-under par 71. Close but no cigar. Early this year I was standing on the 17th tee when it dawned on me that I was 1-under on a par 72 layout. “Hey, I can shoot my age!!!” Two bogies later I had a 73 and another failed attempt at shooting my age. Today did not seem like the moment I might achieve one of my goals. I had not been playing particularly well of late. Our weather has been great for growing grass, wet and cool. Which also means soft fairways that play longer and healthy rough. I signed up online yesterday evening with an unknown single for the 2nd tee time of the day. I arrived at the course early and putted & chipped while I waited for the other single to arrive. Fortunately, the other half of my twosome was walking also. The twosome in front of us were in a cart and played quickly. Juan was a decent player, and we had a great time talking about golf during our 2 hours and 45 minutes together. Great pace of play? Check! Perfect golf partner? Check! Wonderful weather? Check! Things started going my way immediately. I birdied the 1st hole and eventually made the turn at +1. I butchered #10 with a double bogey but then reeled off 3 straight birdies. On the 403-yard closing hole I got up and down for par and knew I had shot a pretty darn good score for me. It was only after we started to walk to the parking lot that it popped into my head that I might have been close to shooting my age. A quick look at the score card confirmed what I had just thought, 36-35-71 (Par 71 / 6,039 yards / 69.2/115). Woo hoo! Shoot my age? Check! Has achieving this goal transformed me into a great golfer? Nope. I will likely go out tomorrow and shoot my IQ (88). But I can say I have shot my age and no longer need to worry about always coming up a shot or two short of the goal.

Something a little different for this post. My wife and I walk local golf courses in the off season for exercise and as a change of pace. We tend to go to courses when there is minimal snow (1-3 inches) on the ground. Walking through deeper snow is a real chose. Following a cross country sier's trail makes it a little easier. Some enterprising individuals have made a skating rink on the par-3 17th hole's pond. Some major tree trimming have been recently performed. That was one large cottonwood tree they removed. I am not sure why it was removed. I do not recall a dead tree on the 10th hole but that is the most likely explanation. The beaver dam between the 10th tee and 12th green has created its own "skating pond." I am no naturalist but I think this groove in the snow was caused by a vole moving around in the grass under the snow. I'll close this little photo essay with a short discussion of my latest peeve. Local residents like to use the closed course as their own personal dog park. I have never had any issues with the dogs as some are leashed and the others tend to be very well trained and/or friendly. I have noticed an issue with the 2-legged owners. Some bag their pet's poop, which is a good thing. that is until they leave the #$@!&! bag laying on the course. By the end of the winter, the course is covered with these ripening presents. I am not sure what I may do if I see a dog owner drop the poop bag and walk away. Watch the news headlines about a crazy old guy going postal on some poor dog owner.😉

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.