Chapter 27

Regional Championship

Saturday morning, I woke up early, and I dressed for the tournament. I had on a tan pair of khakis and a dark red polo I was going to emulate a famous golfer from my own time. “Tiger” always wore red on Sunday. Since this was a one-day event, I was going to dress to impress. I pulled out an extra set of clothes and stuffed them into my golf bag. I stuffed a large thermos of ice water into one compartment, and a couple of sandwiches and some celery and cookies. The things I could snack on in between holes. I knew I would need water as it was supposed to be humid and muggy I would try to refill the thermos at the turn, after the ninth hole.

I ate a quick breakfast of toast and peanut butter, and a large glass of orange juice. I went out and decided that I wanted to drive the T-Bird. So, I unlocked the Mustang’s Trunk and took out my clubs. I opened the truck and, before putting the clubs into the T-Bird. I took one more look at what clubs were in my bag. I decided to substitute the four wood for the three iron. I placed the discarded club on the workshop table and grabbed two extra sleeves of balls and then put them in with the other game balls I had in the side pocket. I grabbed another clean towel, clipping it to the bag, I got my golf shoes, and tied them to the bag by their shoelaces.

I recounted the clubs and repacked everything. Closing the trunk, I put on my sunglasses and backed out of the garage and headed to meet Coach Gears at the school. When he saw my car, he decided my car would look more at home at the country club than his. I just shrugged, and we headed out to Dearborn Country Club, the site of the tournament. It was commissioned in 1923 by Henry Ford himself.

I drove up to the main gate of the country club, where a uniformed security officer stopped me. He went on to inform me that the club was closed for an event and that only guests were allowed through the main gate. There was a fan entrance about another half mile down the road. It was marked, and I could enter the property through that area. I responded I was here for the golf tournament as a competitor and gave him my name. I asked him to please check to see that I was on the list, and then the coach handed him the official letter stating I was playing today.

He looked at the letter and then looked at me, he didn’t say anything but checked whatever list he had. The next thing he did was make a phone call. After about ten minutes, he came back to the car, “Do you have any kind of ID that proves who you are?” he asked. I pulled my driver’s license out of my wallet and handed it to him. He took it and inspected it. He made another phone call and came back and told me to follow the signs to the event area and to not stray from the posted tournament perimeter. And handed me my ID back. I put my license back in my wallet and drove through the gate. I followed the signs without comment. We reached the tournament tent and signed in. Coach asked to see a tournament official, and I was instructed to submit my golf bag for inspection.

I asked: “why?” as I had never had to offer my bag for inspection before.

I was told it was part of the tournament rules. I told them I was going to remain with my bag while they inspected it. I would not be separated from it. I got a dirty look. They examined the bag and removed the thermos of water and the snacks. When I inquired why I was informed that outside food and drinks were not allowed on the course. I also watched as they counted my clubs. They counted them twice, but of course, there were only 14 clubs in my bag. I was asked to sign a chit, and they would keep the bag until the start of the tournament. I waited until Coach Gears arrived and asked him about this requirement. He said that it was standard procedure, so I signed the chit, and they labeled my bag. I inquired about my thermos and snacks. They told me the thermos would be returned at the end of the day. I asked Coach about this. I was going to need water and snacks during the day, especially water, as it was going to be a hot and humid day. I could quickly become dehydrated if I wasn’t allowed water.

Coach tried to make a case for me to be allowed to carry my water thermos, but it was not to be. Fortunately, I guess sanity prevailed, and I was eventually given back my water and snacks. I Knew now that winning this thing would not be just about shooting the lowest score. I was going to have to stick to every USGA rule in the book, and whatever standards this tournament might implement. I received my official scorecard, it was stamped and dated, and my name was printed on it. The official stated to only use pencil and only mark the number of strokes in the indicated areas. Any other stay marks could invalidate my card, and I would forfeit the tournament no matter what my score. I put the scorecard in my pocket.

We had about an hour before the scheduled start time, so I asked the coach if he wanted to walk the course with me. He handed me the tournament rules. There were over 50 local rules to abide by. They were mostly about keeping the newly opened course in shape and some regulations on relief, drop zones, and out of bounds for this course. Coach informed me of the Coaches meeting he had just attended, and that the consensus was that Coaches should not be allowed to walk the course with their players. I asked him why this was, and he didn’t have an answer. He told me Coaches weren’t allowed to discuss strategy with their players this year. I was confused. I decided to walk the course by myself and saw that this was going to be a challenging course. I walked the front nine and decided that was enough to figure out how this would play. I went back to the check-in area. I sat under a tree. I decided I needed to clear my head and closed my eyes. Meditation always worked well for me. I let myself relax and chose not to worry about anything and take this one hole at a time.

At 9:30 am, I went to get my starting time, in time for the tournament start time of 10:00 am. The playing order was by city ranking, and since I was 3rd in the city, I would be in the first foursome. I went to retrieve my bag and asked Coach to come with me. I had a funny feeling in my gut. We arrived at the tent, and I gave them the chit to reclaim my bag. They searched for a couple of minutes and brought it up to the front. I asked them to please inspect it with me with Coach watched. They remarked that this was highly improper. I told them I had never had to be separated from my bag for any other tournament. To me, that was just as improper. The official finally decided to placate me, and we all counted the clubs, there were 15 in the bag. A small no brand putter had been inserted onto my bag. I showed them my chit with the official count and the signature of the check-in official and his confirmation that there were only 14 clubs and only one putter in the bag. With that, I decided to tear the bag apart and see what else they were trying to pull. I insisted they watch as I took every item out of the bag one by one. I found that my balls Titleist Tour Pro 1’s, which I had marked CMJ, was missing. In fact, I had only six non-descriptive balls in the entire bag. and during tournament play you could only play with the balls you had in your bag, if you ran out you forfeited the match. I usually carried 12 balls in my bag.

Coach stepped in and started to yell at the tournament officials. He wanted to know what the hell was going on. Coach said he was filing an official complaint with the High School Athletics Association and the state capitol. For racial discrimination, and with the way I had been treated since my arrival that it would probably be far worse than the case that I had just won. As this was even more blatant, He would be sure to implicate all of them in this conspiracy. The official’s face blanched. He amazingly found my sleeves of pre-marked balls and said the second putter must’ve been an error someone must have accidentally put into the bag. Surely there would be no need for any action. He would sign the chit indicating everything in the bag conformed to the rules.

I joined my playing companions at the 1st tee, they were Jeff Walters, Greg Olson, and Brent Adams. We were the top-ranked in the city, with Jeff being number one. Greg was second, I was third, leaving Brent ranked fourth.

Hole one was a fairly standard opening hole; it is a 325-yard par 4. It has a nearly straight shot to the green, a very narrow fairway. The rough isn’t too high or heavy. Out of Bounds was tree-lined midway, up to the midpoint of the fairway. On the right near the green was a bunker hazard. It was a massive, deep bunker. And it approached shot very tricky. The green was fast, but the hole placement was in the center of the green. This was a simple but potentially deceptive hole.

I would usually play this hole aggressively. I’d try to make a birdie. But I determined during the walk-thru that this was not the way to play it. An aggressive run at birdie could very quickly end up bogey or worse. So, I laid up and played it conservatively. I made par as did Greg. Bent bogeyed, and Jeff got a Birdie. So, Jeff had the honors going to the second hole.

The next two holes also par 4s. They were slightly longer. Number 2 had a dogleg right with a water hazard, then to make the green a memorable experience, they created an island green just for fun. Number 3 was a bogey hole. It was designed to make you play too aggressively and then pay the penalty for it. It was 385-yard par 4 but would play like a par 5. I birdied two and was able to make a long putt for par on three. At the end of the first three holes, I was tied with jeff at eleven, Greg had 12 and Brent were trailing at 13.

Hole number 4 was a 185-yard par 3. It was the first real honest shot at a negative number. I was going to go for birdie I was sure I could hit the green off the tee. I did I landed the ball within 3 feet of the pin. I was ecstatically happy with the shot. I made my putt, and I was looking at being two under after four. Brent made birdie, and both Jeff and Greg had to live with par. Both two putting after leaving long putts for birdie.

Hole number five is the first par 5, and a very challenging hole. The elevated tee box made it look like an eagle chance. Of course, it was very deceptive. The hole robbed you by offering you a very narrow landing zone. The Out of Bounds was artificially narrowed to about 35 ft by a rope strung up the length of the right-hand side of the fairway to where the dogleg left started. This forced you to make a blind second shot. You needed to aim far left, too far to the left, made the tree line come into play, along with the heavy rough, contributing to a high score. Also, just to make you give up hope, this was the second island green of the course. It required a 60 yard-shot to escape the water to land on the flat table-like green; also, this was one of the fastest rated greens on the course. I looked at the hole and the map and said, “Par 5, my ass.” Which I thought was low enough to escape hearing. Jeff responded with, “yeah, tell me about it. This is insane, especially for a Juniors, or High school match.” I think it was the most I’d heard him say all morning.

I got lucky, I barely made it across the water and plopped onto the green, its speed helped, my ball rolled to within a foot of the pin. Jeff hit the water, and that sunk his chance for a negative number. Brent and Greg both played it safe and made par and considered themselves lucky. I made my birdie putt and received congratulations from my group and applause from the gallery. I knew I was getting into the zone, and I was not counting my score, but I knew another birdie couldn’t be wrong.