Chapter 37: Where to Next?

It was late when I finally got to bed Saturday night.

After saying goodbye to Rachel’s folks, they and their middle daughter, Lynn, had piled in their new pickup for the six hour drive back to Lubbock. Rachel then took me aside to explain why her youngest sister, Jana was staying with us.

I guess, because it had been a long and somewhat unpleasant day for me, I was really only half-listening to her reasons. I knew she had already made up her mind about this and I was going to go along with whatever she wanted, when she suddenly said...

“ ... besides, she has a crush on you.”

“Whoa there! Wait-a-minute!” I exclaimed. “What did you just say?”

“Oh ... You HAD to know that!” Rachel said, looking at me in disbelief.

I just stared at her.

“I mean ... you did know she had a crush on you? Right?”

“Rachel, Darling. The last time I saw her ... the last words I spoke with her, was telling her we would have to see about her going on the yacht with us. And that was on Sunday!”

Well, of course, it didn’t matter that I had been playing in a golf tournament, or dealing with the FBI, or healing a small child of a tumor, or even that I had healed her father. No, the only thing that seemed important right now was how could I have ignored the poor girl?

There was no way I was getting out of a long, mostly one-sided discussion now. Thank God, I had the latest possible tee time tomorrow!

For the second time in two tournaments, I was in the final pairing for the final round. It turned out that my playing partner, the golfer who was in first place, was Tim Culpepper.

When I got to the practice tees, I picked a spot near the end again. Tim joined me a few minutes later. I told him congratulations on a great round yesterday and we talked about my yesterday’s playing partner having cost me a shot or two.

“Yeah. I saw that he was disqualified. The scuttlebutt was that they caught him cheating, but nothing has been said officially,” Tim told me.

“Good luck today,” I told him as I started my warmup. “You’ll need it!”

Tim just laughed and said that we might both end up needing a little luck with the way the wind was blowing.

When we got to the first tee, Tim was announced first since he was the tournament leader. I could tell when he hit it that Tim was on his game today.

As usual, I shuddered when the starter called my name. Then I tried to settle down and focus on not hitting a bad shot in front of the television cameras and the thousands of patrons surrounding the green and the clubhouse. For some reason, that never seemed to work for me, but today, I was lucky as I placed the ball up against the fringe of the first cut of rough.

It was a race from the beginning as we both started playing lights out. He birdied three of the first four holes, but then, so did I. From a fans’ point of view, it was a pretty front nine to watch. Tim and I seemed to elevate each other’s game. By the time we got to the turn, we had left the rest of the field behind with matching 31’s which still left him a stroke ahead. I made up my mind to try harder to catch and pass him on the back nine.

We went birdie, par, on Ten and Eleven, then Tim got a par on Twelve and I got a birdie! We were now tied for the tournament. And stayed that way until Seventeen. There, Tim had a thirty-nine footer for a par save. I then sank my ten footer for par. Still tied.

The on-course reporter following us was talking a possible playoff on his headset as we walked up to the 486 yard, Par 4. It was a mostly straight tee shot, but the 18 mph cross wind had been playing havoc with everyone’s shot today.

As Dad and I stood to the side while Tim lined up his tee shot, Dad whispered to me, “I’m proud of you, son. You’ve played well. But I will remind you that you are playing for fun and have a job to go home to. Tim has a new family and this is his only job.”

I just looked at my dad in surprise. Had he just told me to LET Tim win?

“I’m just reminding you that winning isn’t everything. Just do your best,” my dad whispered.

Tim did win. And no, I did NOT throw the match. Didn’t have to. I pulled an amateur boneheaded stunt and tried for a much longer shot than the conditions allowed for. A sudden gust of wind caught my tee shot and drove it into the lefthand rough. I ended up with a bogie to Tim’s par on a beautiful shot out of the sand.

Tim and I both shot 6 under 64’s but since he started a stroke in front of me, he won by a single stroke.

I was surprised by the number of golfers that had stayed around to watch us finish. Most were congratulating Tim, hugging and fist-bumping and loudly cheering his victory, but quite a few of them took the time to shake my hand and tell me how good I had done.

As I walked out of the scorer’s tent, I paused as some more of the guys, and officials, and even fans, pounded my back, bumped my fist, and even hugged me as they all talked about my achievement. I realized at that moment that the congratulations and recognition from my peers, which I had never really experienced before, was truly special. Maybe THIS was what my Dad was talking about when he said winning wasn’t everything?

I got to meet Tim’s wife, Lisa, and their seven-week-old son, as Tim introduced them to my family between interviews. And yes, I had a handful of interviews this time. It was nice. Paige MacKenzie, from the Golf Channel expected me to be sad, but I was happy for Tim and told her so. At nineteen years of age, I was certain I’d have another chance in the future.

I did learn that the big check they presented was a fake. The $150,000 winner’s portion would be deposited into Tim’s bank by Wednesday. As an amateur, I was not sure how the second place money that I would have earned if I had not been playing as an amateur, would be divided, but the officials told me that it would go to the players as it was considered part of the payout.

In lieu of money, I received two trophy’s. One for second place and one for low amateur. I didn’t know it at the time, but my sponsor, the one that gave me the sponsor’s exemption to play in the Wichita Open, would send me a small check later in the week to help cover my expenses, the note said. Cynthiana returned it of course, with the appropriate thanks. She had decided that I might play college golf and didn’t want to jeopardize my eligibility.

I was also pleasantly surprised when Tim and Lisa followed us out to the Escalade in the parking lot.

“I offered the Culpepper’s a ride home. They live in Florida,” Dad told me.

When we reached the rental house, our luggage was already packed and sitting in the garage. Dad tied it to the luggage rack while we squeezed the eight of us plus the baby, back into the Escalade and then I closed the garage door. We were finally on the way to the airport.