August 8, 2001
A few days ago I was
golfing with my buddy, Dick, and I told him about the great experience I had
when I took my grandson out on the golf course for the first time. When he heard the story he said, George,
that would make a great column.” Let’s
see if Dick was right.
I love golf. I guess hitting golf balls is kind of a
passion for me. I love to go to the
practice area at our Beverly Golf Club and hit balls and experiment with all
kids of different swings. My 5 year-old
grandson, Matt, also likes to hit balls.
He has been swinging clubs and bats since he could walk. Fortunately, he has a lot of athletic
ability and it’s pretty easy for him to play sports.
Matt and I have been
to the driving ranges a few times and he really loves it. But I have been waiting for the day when I
could take him on a real golf course.
And last week we finally got our chance. Matt and I went to the course in the early evening when there
were very few other players on the course so we could take our time and enjoy
our golf.
The weather was just
perfect. The course was so green and so
lush. The sky was a deep blue and we
even had the moon out as we played. And
Matt was so excited. He didn’t realize
that I was just as excited as he was. I
have been waiting a long time to take him golfing on a real golf course.
Matt had his own
driver and putter. I gave him three
golf balls and a bunch of tees and we were off. He was really off. He was
so excited he was running to the hill I told him he could tee off from. We found out that he could hit his driver
about 75 yards so he hit his tee shots 75 yards from the green. On some of the holes there just happened to
be small hills about 75 yards from the green so it was just perfect for him to
hit from the top of the hill down to a green 75 yards away.
Getting the ball to
stay on the tee took a little doing for Matt at first. Matt was used to the permanent rubber tees
at the driving range so he had to do a little experimenting before he could get
his ball to stay on the tee. But it
didn’t take too long for him to have the ball on the tee and for him to begin
firing. Well, Matt was beside himself
when he saw his tee shots heading for the green and sometimes over the green.
Even before his ball
stopped rolling Matt was racing toward the green with his putter in his hand
ready to hole the putt. He had so much
enthusiasm. He was running and yelling
and having such a great time. He kept
saying, “Grampa watch this. Grampa,
look at that one.” He was having almost
as much fun as I was having just watching him.
When his ball was on
the green Matt didn’t have too much patience for the putting. He would slap the ball around the green
until it went in the hole and then he was off and running for the real
fun: hitting that little white ball as
far as he could.
On the fifth hole
Matt hit his driver into a sand trap.
He only had a driver for a club so I told him he needed a special sand
wedge to hit the ball over the steep face of the sand trap. But Matt wanted to give it a go with his
driver so he proceeded to hit about ten shots right into the face of the sand
with the ball rolling back towards his feet.
Matt is pretty
creative so he looked around the situation and came up with a new wrinkle. He saw that the front of the sand trap had
no steep face. So he turned around and
hit the ball backwards over the shallow part of the sand trap and onto the
fairway. And then he gave me the, “I
told you I could do it” look.
On the seventh hole
we have a ball washer so I showed Matt how it worked. He was really interested in putting the golf balls into the
little round hole and pumping the handle up and down against the brushes to
clean the balls.
Now at was about time
to go. The sun was beginning to set and
the moon was getting brighter overhead.
It was so beautiful. It was so
peaceful. We were the only two people
on the course enjoying the beauty of the golf course and enjoying our
companionship.
As we walked in, Matt
kept telling me how much fun he had. I
told him that it was also a really special time for me. During our time on the course I made a
point of not pushing Matt with instruction.
I am working hard at backing off on the instruction and just enjoying
the experience with my grandchildren.
When we got home Matt
began to tell his dad how much fun he had at the golf course. He said he really enjoyed hitting the balls
at the course, but the best part of all was washing those balls in the ball
washer.