Chapter 2

Tess bought my lunch at Applebee's and I was expecting to join her afterward to complete the front nine on Course One, but instead she just drove me back to the Club, gave me my fee plus a $20 tip, thanked me for the 27-hole workout, and made a date for another round late Wednesday afternoon.

She was there on Wednesday, again playing alone and again playing solid golf on the difficult second course.

She said she would be back on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and asked if I was going to be available to caddie for her.

I was available. I was still in school, but we were in the waning days of the term, my course load was light, my undergraduate college record was, for the most part, already established. I was coasting. Even final exams, now just two and three weeks away, were not intimidating.

I was about to become Will Everett, unemployed college graduate and golf caddie.

Mom would be so proud!

Tess had her own school, and her own graduating, to worry about, and after the two-day weekend of golf at the club, she told me she'd be going back to UVA for the next two weeks. "Will you still be here when I get back?" she asked.

"You mean here, at the club? Probably. My degree isn't going to get me very far out of Chapel Hill."

"What are you planning to do?" she asked me.

"I'm going to take a year off from school," I said. "I'm going to look for work -- but not for a career. I want to go back to school, after a year, and get my Masters and, if possible, my Doctorate. Then I'll teach."

"Teach? Where? What?"

"History. I want to be an historian. A college professor, I guess."

"For now, can you make more money with a regular 9-5 job, than you can, caddying?" she asked me.

"Probably. Although I don't exactly qualify for the big bucks. An undergraduate degree, these days, is the new high school diploma."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm a lucky girl. I've got a free ride, and a rich Daddy."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going on the tour. Not the LPGA -- the Futures Tour."

"Wow. That's a hard road, isn't it? I mean, I've heard the purses on the Futures Tour aren't much."

"You've heard right. Even if you win a tournament, it's like, $10 or $12 thousand. The purses -- for the entire tournaments -- only run between $70 and $100 thousand. Not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme."

"It sounds like it'll be tough, just breaking even."

"True enough. And the season's half over already, so I'll have to be lucky to finish high enough in the rankings to qualify for an LPGA Tour Card, for next year."

"But you've got the game for it."

"Thanks, Will. I think you're right. I think I've got the game."

"Any chance of your getting any LPGA tournament invitations? This year, I mean?"

"This season? Not much chance. I've got a good rep in the college ranks, but I didn't win any big individual awards. I'm not all that well-known yet. Maybe if I can win a tournament on the Futures Tour, somebody will invite me to play an LPGA event before the year is out."

"It's going to be a grind," I told her.

She laughed. "Not so bad for little rich girls -- or, in my case, maybe I should say big rich girls. My dad is staking me for a year -- a calendar year! I have from mid- June this year to mid-June of next year, to make a success of it as a pro, and maybe earn my LPGA tour card. I've got adequate capital from Daddy, and I've got a bus -- a big, fancy live-in-it bus that I can take from one event to the next.

"Jeez!"

"Hey, it's used -- but not badly used, and it's damned near as big as a Greyhound. My dad leased it for the duration. It's going to be fun."

"You going to drive it yourself?"

"You don't think I'm big enough, handle that giant vehicle?"

"I think it would be a strain -- playing, and then driving like a bat out of hell to make it to the next tournament."

"Well, you've got a point. My first event will be in Hammond, Indiana, just before the Independence Day holiday. But, after Hammond, the next one's in Bloomfield, Connecticut."

"Long ways."

"Well, it's not going to be too much of a strain, really -- the tournament's on the the Independence Day weekend and after that there's a break before the one in Connecticut. I'll even be able to come back here, in between."

"With gas prices, you might be better off flying!"

"Maybe. But don't forget, this isn't a little camper -- it's full-fledged luxury living. All the amenities. It's going to be an adventure for me, I'll tell you!"

"Yeah. It sounds terrific."

"You really think so?"