Father's Day Memories
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By Glenn Mueller
eDiets Senior Writer/Editor
This weekend, the 108th U.S. Open will take place at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego. Aside from being the national championship, the final round of this prestigious event is contested on Father's Day. It's only appropriate that one of the most coveted titles in professional sports should be awarded on Father's Day.
Like a good golf pro, fathers guide us through each round of our lives. Only we can make the shots, but our fathers motivate us to play at our best. A good father teaches us to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. When we get a bad lie, a father inspires us to make the best of it. When we hit our ball in the water, a good father inspires us to shrug it off and focus on our next shot.
Of course, my analogy will work with just about any sport. However, for me, no sport embodies the spirit of fatherhood better than the game of golf. In my relationship with my father, perhaps nothing brought us closer together than the game of golf. It provided me the opportunity to enter my father's world and allowed the two of us to really bond. The golf course always served as a sanctuary, on which to cultivate our relationship with one another.
Some of my earliest childhood memories involve going to the driving range with my father. He would hand me a 9 or a 7-iron and let me hit some of his range balls from the mat next to him. Eventually, I worked my way up to earning a few swings with his driver.
"That's the longest drive I've ever seen you hit," he seemed to remark on every subsequent trip to the range.
When my father played a round of golf on family vacations, I always rode in the cart with him. Somewhere around the middle of the round, he would let me drop a ball and play along for a few holes. Even in those days, my father made it a point to teach me the etiquette of the game.
When I was 10 years old, my father took me to see the 1980 U.S. Open Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. One of the best memories of my childhood was standing beside the 18th green as Jack Nicklaus rolled in his final putt at dusk on Sunday to win the tournament. Chants of "Jack is back!" erupted from the gallery. At 40, Nicklaus had become the first person ever to win four U.S. Open titles.
Years later at the Honda Classic in Coral Springs, Fla., my father and I saw Jack Nicklaus again -- walking right next to us in the gallery. He and his wife Barbara were following their own son, Gary. That tournament also allowed me to see my favorite player on the PGA TOUR, Davis Love III. Davis has been my favorite ever since I read his book, Every Shot I Take: Lessons Learned in Golf, Life and a Father's Love. The book is (you guessed it) a tribute to his dad!
My favorite round of golf with my father occurred when the two of us played on the same team in a scramble at Boca Dunes Country Club. I was the lead-off man for our team, and I remember my hands started to shake as I gripped the club and stepped up to hit my first drive. I hit it down the center of the fairway though, and my father was beaming with pride.
Shortly after this event, one of the worst fears of my childhood came true -- I was exposed to my father's mortality. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When he started chemotherapy, one of the first questions he asked the doctors was whether he would still be able to play golf. Fortunately, the answer was yes.
It is hard for me to believe that it was seven years ago that my father and I celebrated our last Father's Day together. He was entering the final round of his courageous battle against cancer, and we both knew he had only months to live.
The two of us completed a full 18 holes of golf that morning. Despite his frail condition, my father fought rain, crowds and fatigue in order to do that with me, and he never uttered a single complaint. After the round, we returned home to hoist a few beers and watch the end of the U.S. Open on television.
In his book, Davis Love writes, "My late father, for who I am named, is still my hero. He always was; he always will be." You know something? I know exactly how Davis feels.
I've read that as long as your father is alive, you will always be a son. I'm sorry, but I think this is nonsense. Time has taught me that you don't stop being a son merely because your father dies. Even if you are a father or grandfather yourself, you will always be your father's son. And, for me, nothing embodies the spirit of fathers and sons better than the U.S. Open.
No matter what happens this weekend, one thing is certain. The 108th U.S. Open champion will be somebody's son. And whether this golfer's father is standing beside him on the 18th green or smiling down from the heavens, that son will have one proud Dad!
All of us at eDiets would like to wish all the fathers and grandfathers out there a Happy Father's Day! Even if golf isn't your "cup of tee," do you have special memories of times spent with your Dad? Send your own Father's Day greetings by posting a comment below.
Labels: holidays, relationships
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