Chapter 18

Once I fell asleep it was sound and I was awake at my usual time. I cleaned up after doing my run and exercises. I was at the school front door five minutes early, but Coach Stone pulled up as I got there.

It was only a fifteen-minute drive to the Country Club. Once there we went into the Pro Shop, that’s what the sign said. Coach had me hold various clubs and finally settled on a set for me to rent for the day.

He paid seventy-five cents for me. From there we went to the driving range. He handed me a tee and showed me how to tee up in the tee box. Thank you, Mum, for explaining the difference between tea and tee. I would have been so mortified I never could have come back.

Coach took me through what he called the mechanics of the swing. He explained I didn’t have to get under the ball. That was why the clubface was slanted. He explained how a swing must be repetitive and smooth.

He showed me how power was achieved by rotating the hips into the swing as the arms came down and turning the wrist through the swing. He explained how follow-through was important.

He had me do several practice swings without a ball. Next, he showed me how to tee one the proper height. Then he told me to take a swing without thinking of all the things he just told me.

Of course, I thought about them as I slowly did my backswing. When I started moving forward it happened too quickly to think about. The ball went straight but it just barely made it past the two hundred yard sign. I would have to really work to get it out to the three hundred yard sign.

Coach just said, “Do it again.”

I must have hit twenty balls, they all cleared two hundred yards but none of them made three hundred. I figured Coach was going to tell me I had no future in golf. I turned around and realized that there were over a dozen adults standing there.

I asked Coach, “Do you think I might be able to make the team?”

For some reason, everyone started laughing.

One guy said, “The question is kid, when are you going to turn pro?”

That’s when I realized I must have found my sport.

Coach Stone let me know in no uncertain terms the fact I could drive was wonderful. However, I needed to take to heart the old pro golf saying. You drive for show, you putt for dough.

We went over to the practice green and he gave me a demonstration of how the slightest hill or depression in the green could change the path of the ball. He called it “reading the green”. It was a combination of visualizing the path of the ball, and what speed was needed to follow that path.

Putting was harder than driving. As soon as my ball was fifteen feet or more from the hole I would miss some. Coach didn’t get on me about it so I guess it wasn’t a total disaster.

Finally, Coach slowly said, “I have seen enough, let’s now play an eighteen-hole round and see how you do.”

The club pro joined us. They both worked with me on what club to use and why. The course had a par of seventy-two. Mr. Collins the club pro had a seventy-six, Coach a seventy-seven and I had an eighty-two. My problem was that the ball would fly over the green on par threes. I had to keep using higher number irons.

By this time I understood that I was doing pretty well for a first-time golfer.

When I expressed this to Coach he replied, “More than pretty well, your timing is perfect. That is probably why you did so well bull riding.”

Coach continued, “There are many things you don’t know about the game, as the rules for one. Are you interested in going out for the team?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Good because our fourth man is moving, his dad has taken a job in Lima at the tank factory. We will have to get you some accelerated lessons. State rules are that I can only work with students for so many hours during the season.”

“Can Mr. Collins work with me?”

“Yes he can, but he is a Golf Professional, that means he gets paid for teaching.”

“Mr. Collins, how much do you charge?”

“It would be five dollars a lesson. I can give you two lessons a week for the next six weeks so that would be sixty dollars plus forty dollars for a good set of clubs along with a bag and another ten dollars for shoes and balls. That is a lot of money for someone your age. Can your parents afford it?”

“They can, but I will be paying for my own lessons. Do you want the money for the lessons all at once?”

“In advance, each month will do.”

I gave him twenty dollars for the rest of September.

“Since you are joining in the middle of the season Coach Stone will tell me what I should teach each week.”

We agreed on lessons back to back on Sunday morning starting at seven o’clock. This would fit in with Mr. Collins’s other weekend appointments. If the weather was too bad and we couldn’t use the outside we would go over the rules and things like golf etiquette. It seems golfers were very polite. I shook hands with Mr. Collins.

My coach was kind enough to drop me off at my house. He asked if Dad was at home. He had just got there. He and Dad had a private conversation, I don’t know what was said but Dad really encouraged me to play golf from then on. He even volunteered to drive me to the golf course when he could.