Chapter 15

The pro-am tournament ran into some difficulty with rainy weather, but they got in most of the scheduled competition, and both Tess and Kim reported that they'd enjoyed the experience.

"Sometimes," Kim told us back at the RV, "the amateur women will invite us back, after the event, to their homes."

"For dinner?" I asked.

"Yes. For dinner. Sometimes, they will offer a place to stay, for the night, or for the time the player is in the town."

"Like us, here, with you," I said.

Kim smiled. "Sometimes, like you, here. But I have heard stories."

"Stories?" Tess said, encouraging Kim to tell us one.

"Sometimes, I have been told -- it has never happened to me -- the offers of a place to stay; they are in reality, attempts to -- to seduce the women."

"Seduce? By other women, you mean?" Tess prompted. Tess was interested. Hell, I was interested, too.

"Yes," Kim said simply. "At least, that is the most commonly told story, by the players on the tour, who tell their tales. It is perhaps only gossip."

"Are the players thought to be -- uh -- lesbians? The ones who are sought out, I mean?"

"There are stories of women who seek out the... the willing women, and also, a few tales of true attempts at seduction."

"Fascinating," I said. "Sex is everywhere!"

"That's fine, I guess," Tess said, "so long as there isn't any pressure put on the young women."

"How do you mean, pressure?" I asked.

"I mean, a lot of these players are barely scraping along! Look at Kim, here. She's made some money on the tour, but expenses are so high! And prize money is so low! Didn't you notice how reluctant she was, the other night, to accept my offer of shelter?"

"She just didn't want to accept charity -- right, Kim?" I said, looking to her for an endorsement of my summation.

"No," Kim said. "Tess is correct. I was afraid that her offer was -- sexual in nature."

"Sure," Tess said. "Kim wanted to be sure there were no strings attached to her staying with us for a few days -- and nights."

"Didn't you know that Tess and I were -- together?"

"I knew that, after a short while," Kim said, "but how was I to be certain you were not both seeking a... a new partner?"

"Yes, I can see that," I said. "But. Would that be so bad?"

"Will!" Tess shouted, genuinely shocked at my question.

"No, wait," I said. "I'm not trying to be -- to suggest anything here. I'm just asking Kim, would it be so terrible, for a couple to ask a touring player to join in -- whether it's a couple, or whether it's, you know, two other women -- whatever. In a threesome, I mean."

"You don't understand," Kim said. "It is not the three people, together, that is wrong. It is the... the coercion that occurs, if the player who is asked is without money. If she is without resources, if she needs the help of this couple you speak of, or these women, then it is like -- force. It is not what you would speak of as 'free will.'"

"Yes, of course," I said. "I can see that." I laughed inwardly, trying to imagine myself, sitting in someone's home in South Korea, explaining such a complex concept to my hosts -- and in their language!

Right. That was going to happen.

Tess was intrigued. "That really was on your mind, Kim? When I offered you my bit of hospitality?"

"Yes, it was. For a little while. As I have said, no one has ever mistreated me, in a social situation, on the tour. But I have heard the stories, and I am weary."

"Wary," Tess said.

"What?"

"You meant that you were 'wary.' You were cautious, when such matters were discussed."

"Yes, that is right. Wary. Thank you."

"I apologize for correcting you, Kim. Your English is superb! But I assumed you would want to be corrected."

"I am not offended. I do appreciate the correction."

"Well, I don't know about you," I told them, "but I really am weary. And tomorrow, you both have early tee times. Let's get some sleep!"

As was becoming our custom, Tess and I retired without making love on Thursday night. There hadn't been (thank God) any kind of general restraint placed on our having sex during the three-day tournaments. We had fucked like bunnies back in Bloomfield. But by mutual consent (and despite Tess' one-time attack of insomnia), we took the night off before the opening round.

One might expect that the Sunday closing round would be the one most tension-filled for the players, and I suppose it sometimes can be, if a woman is in contention for a top position.

But in Tess' case, and I think in general, it was the first day of a tournament that gave the players the worst case of butterflies. After all, they were facing what was, essentially, the unknown: new competitors, a new course, massive numbers of opening-round players, and the confusions that inevitably surrounded opening day. The people who managed Futures Tour events were hard-working and, in general, golf-savvy and excellent; but they were, for the most part, less experienced and less knowledgeable than their counterparts who organized major PGA or LPGA tournaments.