Teed Off Ch. 01

When I left, Gerry picked up the phone and called the swing coach he had in mind. Asking him to watch the movie "The Natural" with Robert Redford. It wasn't that great a movie, but it would get the point across.

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When spring finally sprung the grass on my putting green came back and the Zoysia perked up. I spent some time working on my game really trying to be more consistent with my shots. Meredith noticed and asked, "Daddy, you sure are spending a lot of time on this. Don't you worry that it's taking too much time?"

"Darling, I'm simply thinking about seeing how good I could be. I never really got the chance when I was younger. I don't think I'll pursue it too much longer."

Work continued to go well, and the owner was pleased at how their international business had grown. I emailed my friend Neil, and we set up a Skype call to catch up. We had a good call. His tourism business was doing well enough. More importantly, he and his wife were enjoying themselves, which was well earned. I thought I might get to come to Europe for work, and if so, I would make a planned detour by his place. I told him how well my golf game had improved, which excited him, because he wanted us to play if I came for a visit. We agreed to keep in touch more regularly, and would make plans if it worked out.

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It was Gerry that called Tim to make plans for a golf outing the following week. Same schedule as usual, a pre-luch tee time. When he got there Gerry begged off at the last minute saying that, he couldn't make it. A customer needed a club fitting to buy some clubs from him, which would make Gerry a couple of hundred bucks, so I understood. There was a guy in the Pro Shop named Steve, and Gerry paired us together.

We both hit some practice shots and then went to the cart to play. He drove.

We played from the back tees, and he played really well. I asked him about it, and he said that he had been in Florida some over the winter, which allowed his game to stay in good shape. We enjoyed a nice dry spring day and picked up some snacks and a beer when the drink cart found us. Starting on about the 10th hole, I noticed him watching me from time to time. After a few more holes, he would try to give me a few tips. "You're letting the head dip too much in your backswing. Your grip is too weak at impact. Don't be afraid to take a divot." Those types of things. It didn't bother me at first, but started to become a little annoying towards the end. I was just trying to enjoy a game. I had already been practicing in my front 'yard'. This was supposed to be fun.

My first real round of the year and I shot a 75. Suuuper! When we got back to the clubhouse Gerry said, "what do you think?"

My response was, "I thought the course was great. All the wet weather we had didn't seem to impact it too much. Your greens-keeper is doing a great job."

He replied, "not you. Steve."

"He still needs to work on his putting. His lines are decent, but his stroke needs work. Even though he's on the green a lot, his short game near the green needs work. He isn't setting himself properly for his woods, but that can be fixed. We need to tweak his grip, but his irons are as good as you say. They are gold. If we can get him a little more consistent with his distance on each club, he could do some damage."

I stared at the two of them with a puzzled look on my face. "Sorry, I had to trick you Tim, but this is Steve - The swing coach I was thinking about."

"What?"

Gerry was smiling. "I knew you would never take the plunge on your own. So I called Steve and asked him to stop by when he was in town, which is why I scheduled our tee time for today."

Steve spoke up, "Tim, what Gerry told me was true. You do have quite a bit of potential. I can see it. You are too old for the regular PGA tour, but the seniors tour starts at 50, which I suspect isn't too far away for you. You aren't ready yet, but within a year I could have you ready for Qualifying if you were interested.

"Thanks for the invite Gerry. I have to run see another client. Call me if he's interested." Then Steve walked out.

Gerry was still smiling at me. "Something for you to think about, huh?"

It was.

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I talked it over with those closest to me, which were Meredith, Ken, Sam and my sister. I decided that I would give it a year like he said, just to see if it goes anywhere. I think Meredith was a little disappointed. She and my sister wanted to fix me up on some dates, but I wasn't planning much down time for that. I wasn't really interested yet, either.

I schedule time once a month to work two afternoons in a row with Steve. I liked my practice facility at the farm better than anywhere else, so we worked there. He was pleased with the conditions and we got into our routine. I immediately entered a few local tournaments, and finished second in a few and finally won one. I was lucky that the tournament I won happened to be a local tournament that qualified me to play in the sectional qualifying for the US Amateur. Steve wanted me to try to qualify for the US Senior Amateur, but the age requirement on that is 55, and I was only 49. So I entered the local qualifying tournament for the US Amateur.

By now, middle of the summer, I was playing slightly under par from the back tees, so I was playing really well. I could usually beat Gerry when we played. The practice regime Steve had me use was paying dividends. He even edited video of me when I swung exactly the way he wanted, and using a number of apps on my phone, I was able to try and replicate those swings over and over again.

Truthfully? I didn't enjoy it. It was work. It took all the fun out of the game. Oh sure, it's fun to go out and break par. There is a real thrill that comes with that, but at what cost. I was sinking at least an hour into this every day, and most days it was 2 or 3 hours. On the weekends my life had become dedicated to golf. It was exciting in the beginning, but wasn't really any longer.

I actually won my local qualifying tournament. I was going to play in the US Amateur. I don't know for sure, but I think I was the oldest player there.

After winning the qualifying tournament, I had a talk with my family. I told them that we had discussed doing it for one year, so I would pursue this a little further. My daughter told me I should stop, because I looked miserable. That wasn't entirely true, but I already knew that this wasn't for me. Golf had always been a game I enjoyed. I wasn't enjoying it right now.

I had a month to prepare for the Amateur, and I saw Steve a couple of times. He was pleased with my progress, and told me I should pull some time away from my long game and focus more on my short game, chipping and putting. So I did. I continued to improve over the next month up until the time of the tournament, which was held out in California. I took a week off work and flew out. Wouldn't you know it, it actually rained. California. In the summer. Rain.

What I didn't know at the time was that it was helping me. From those lessons my grandfather taught me, I dug in and tried to do my best, when there were plenty of people that didn't even want to be on the course and were praying that they would postpone the round. They didn't. I did well enough the first two days to move on from stroke play to match play - the round of 64. I won my first match, but lost the second. This meant that I was in the top 32 of amateur golfers in the U.S. Not too bad.

I shared this with Neil over Skype, and he had been following me over the internet. He reminded me that when I visit, I need to bring my sticks so we could play. There were a number of great courses there, including St. Andrews and Carnoustie, so that sounded like fun.

My quick rise from nowhere caught the attention of a number of people in the local media, but I was mostly done at this point. I was tired. I was polite, and told them some of my story (only my work with Steve and Gerry), but I didn't really want the limelight. It did help me a lot locally. I was now invited to play in local tournaments, and other people that played now knew who I was. My play in bad weather was beginning to get around, so if bad weather was predicted on the weekend of a tournament, people looked at me to play well; usually I did.

Meredith went home for a good portion of the summer, to visit her sister and mother, which saddened me terribly. Ken was pissed off at me, because he said that her main reason for going was because I was away playing golf all the time. It's funny. To most people, they would think I was having a fabulous summer due to my rise in the golfing world, but I wasn't happy.

I told everyone that it would just be a little longer, and that I would do what I said and stick with it for a year. Whereupon I would reevaluate, which at that moment meant that I would stop. With Meredith gone, I worked even harder at it, so when she returned, I could slack off. There was a big tournament, to which I was invited, the weekend she was supposed to return for college. I didn't go. Steve went ballistic, but it was too much. My daughter needed to know that she was the most important thing in my life, not golf.

We had a big get-together, with everyone from Ken's family and from mine. It reminded us all of the week the girls came down last year. It was good times. I apologized to her for not being around as much and promised her it would get better soon. I did cut back a little. I had learned to be more consistent with the distance of my iron shots and controlling my woods, so I cut my iron and wood practice in half, but maintained my short game practice on the putting green at home.

She told me how her sister was doing, which was fine. I was surprised to learn that Janet had gone to see a counselor about why she drove us away. Actually, surprised wasn't the right word. I was stunned. Meredith also said that she was dating someone, but it wasn't serious. She was watching me for my reaction, but I simply told her, "Honey, she is free to see whoever she wants. I gave up that right, remember? I wish her the best, though." This was about what she was expecting from me, but I think she was hoping I would start to show some interest in her mother.

I only entered two tournaments a month, which gave me more time with Meredith and Ken. One of the guys for which we agreed to split wood, was one of Ken's neighbors. He had a son, Jacob, that would bring the wood over and dump it for us to split. After we split it, we would then throw it back into the trailer for him to stack at his father's house. Meredith came out there one time. He noticed her, and she noticed him and before long they were going out occasionally.

This being her first full year at Carson Newman, she did more with her friends at school, plus with her date nights with Jacob, she was busy enough that we didn't see her as much as we liked. We made sure though, that on the weekends I didn't have tournaments, including my 50th birthday, we would have our family get-togethers; now including Jacob. Sigh. It was funny. Seeing us swing those axes and busting up the wood, I'm not sure of whom Jacob was more afraid, me or Ken.

I continued to play well in local tournaments, placing well and occasionally winning one. This continued until November when Steve wanted me to enter the Qualifying School (tournament) for the Champions Tour - the professional tour for people over the age of 50. This was what I had been playing for, but when I mentioned it to my family, they balked. They didn't want me to play. If I actually qualified for a place on the tour, I would never be home. What about my job? What about Meredith and Ken?

All I could do was promise them that I wouldn't go on tour, no matter what. They were very skeptical of me at that point, although I had kept my word this entire time. The problem was that in the beginning they didn't realize how much time it would take. As a result of that conversation, Sam hired a senior manager, Frank, reporting to me to continue to grow our international business. We had grown a lot and so the help for me was welcome. However, Frank was really a back-up plan in case I decided to go on tour. I didn't discover that fact until much later, but something good did come out of that, our international business continued to grow.

For the week of Thanksgiving, I was in Florida participating in a tournament to see if I was good enough to be on the Champions tour. It was hard for me to believe, how much my game had changed in a year.

I didn't win, but I did well enough to qualify for the tour. My family and Neil had been following me on the Golf Channel. Neil was thrilled and called me within an hour of me qualifying. It was midnight his time, when he called, but was pleased for me. I told him I wasn't going to do it, which he couldn't believe.

I came home the next day and Meredith met me at the airport. She was almost in tears. I picked her up and hugged her to me. "Don't worry baby, I'm not going. I'm staying home. I'm only going to play for fun now." With that she was so relieved she broke into tears. We found a seat and sat for a few minutes. I told her how much I wanted to be around for her, and I how I wanted us to do more things together. She was pleased by this and we drove home.

We had a "Tim's staying home" party that weekend. Everyone was relieved; including me. Ken was even talking to me now, which I thought was amusing. Since Meredith went to Chicago for Thanksgiving, she was staying with us for Christmas. It thrilled Ken when she said, "I want to be home for Christmas." I cut back on practice even more while she was out of school. We had a good Skype conversation on Christmas day with Rachel. Apparently, she was at her mother's, which was expected. I even got drug into the call while Janet was on. Uhg. Just shoot me.

"Hi Janet. ...Yes, I'm good. ...You are looking good. Me?... Thank you... I hope you have a good Christmas...." That was about the extent of it. I really didn't have the desire to talk to her. Hell, she spent how many months, or when all those months were combined, even years, not talking to me when we were actually married. Why would she want to talk to me now? Meredith was very happy about my talking to her.

"You did good, Dad. I'm sure that meant a lot to her."

I let out a big grunt, saying "I can hardly believe that. I know for a fact that I haven't meant anything to her in the last 10 to 15 years. Do you know how I know this? She told me, several times. I can only hear, 'you're pathetic' or 'I don't care' so many times before I think she means it." I was getting angry now, and I didn't want to be. "I'm sorry baby. Some nerves are still raw. They probably will be for a long time."

"I know, Dad. She's trying to change."

"Hmmmmph." I would believe that when I saw it, though honestly, I didn't really even want to see it. I didn't tell Meredith that.

Of course, not starting on the tour ended my relationship with Steve. He was apoplectic that I was staying home. What a huge opportunity I was throwing away. Do I know how many people would love to be in my place, etc. etc. All I knew was that I couldn't be away from my family that much. Also, I didn't enjoy the amount of work it takes to be that good. For me golf was supposed to be a game for enjoyment. I wasn't enjoying it right now.

I still planned to enter a few tournaments, and maybe some local club events for fun. I was still an amateur, since I never actually played in an event as a pro. So rather than focusing on my practice, I focused on my family and my job. Then if I had time, I would practice. So I kept pretty busy.

Neil knew I wasn't going on tour, so he skyped me to say that since I would not be traveling all over the U.S., that I should come visit him this summer. He wanted me to come the last two weeks of July, which was fine with me. He had tickets to The Senior Open being held this year at St. Andrews. Awesome!! I even worked it out so that I could do some business while I was over there.

It was January, and Meredith and Rachel were supposed to be starting their last semester of school, but it looked like they would finish in the fall. Her mother and I had always promised them that we would take them to somewhere in Europe after college. If we waited until after they graduated, then it would be in the winter or later which would likely mean bad weather or interfering with their jobs. Since they were well on their way to graduating, we decided that we would go ahead and go this summer.

I put Meredith in charge of that. I planned to work from London the week before I visited Neil. Then I was going to be in Scotland for those two weeks with Neil. I told her we could do two weeks, with a week in each city. I let them and their mother pick any city in Europe they wanted for the first week, but the second week we were going to Barcelona. I had already picked out the place to stay and would arrange our itinerary there. After the flight back from Barcelona, I would split my last week between Germany and Italy. It was going to be an interesting trip, because Janet was going too. It would be over two years since I had last seen her. I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy those two weeks with my daughters or not.

I continued playing and practicing, and I kept getting a little better. At least I wasn't getting worse which is what I expected. Again the course was wet in the spring, and we had plenty of days with rain, but I played anyway. Gerry and I played some more 9-hole rounds with one club. Gerry even called me a few times to come play in the muck. Gerry was a little disappointed I didn't go onto the tour, but he had a family too, so he understood the strains that could place on a family.

Spring was finally breaking through. Neil called in late March and invited himself for a visit in late April, which I thought was odd since I was going to be seeing him in a few months anyway. Meredith's classes were going well, which meant in her final semester in the fall, she would only need a couple of classes to graduate. She and Jacob had become a couple by this point, and I did my best to get to know him. He seemed like a good guy. I had met his dad who I thought was a great guy, so I hoped the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

Ken was getting his garden ready and posting his pictures of everything on his blog, Instagram and Facebook. He even featured the upgraded barn from time to time. He got a lot of likes and comments whenever his cats, Tom and Sylvester, were in the pictures.

It was April and time for Neil to arrive, and he got in late, as connecting flights from Europe to Knoxville usually do. Ken had a room for him, so we sent him to bed. The next morning, I got up to join them for breakfast and he was already having breakfast with Meredith and Ken. Ken, being his usual self, had to put out there, "We were about to come looking for you. It took you long enough." It was barely 6:30, for crying out loud. Meredith looked pleased about something, so I guess Neil had been his usual entertaining self.

"So it appears as if you've been telling stories again. Ken, Mer, don't believe any of them, especially if they involve me."

"Ha. Those are me favorite stories" Neil bellowed with his Scottish brogue.

I took Neil with me to work to introduce him around. He was impressed with the factory and what we had done over the last 2 years. His accent and gregariousness made him a hit at work. During lunch we had quite the crowd listening to him tell stories.

We left early to play 18-holes after work. We didn't wait to get beers after the round, but took them with us while we played. He had smuggled a couple of good Cohiba's for us to smoke while we played, too. He wasn't really ready to play from the long tees, so we played from the men's (the white tees). With the course playing so much shorter for me, I believe I would have shot 6 under par, if I had been seriously keeping score. We were laughing and having a good time.