Emedrald Isle, 01-25-2009...
Monday January 26, 2009 7:26pm

slipped out near noon on sunday to get in a quick 18 at Emerald Isle, the par 3 course...  Big mistake...  Foursomes,  Fivesomes, Frisbee golvers...  The place was totally over populated..   

for which I'm grateful, I want to see em make lot's of money so as not to fall victim to the economy...

I just don't want to see it while I'm rotting on the tee...

but a beautiful day nonetheless..

storms had cleared,  broken clouds...   cool but sunny...good breeze...

 course was in fine shape, such as it is...

By the 3rd hole, the two guys behind me were waiting on the tee with me... I offered to let em hit up, but they passed... took a couple more holes of hanging out on the tee forever for them to relent...  and we started playing together...

Noticed that just the one of em was playing... older guy, late 60's maybe... looked younger...   the other guy was calling him Pop and giving him tips, suggesting clubs, encouraging him and such...  he could smack the ball as well as I could,  but a duff or two here and there let you know he wasn't so serious... 

we exchanged the usual self depreciating comments about our game...

bitched about the course...   he thought the greens were tough, I thought finding a level spot in the tee box was the biggest challange on the course...

I pretty much played my game and left it at that,  paying the proper respects and golf etiquette...  but it was casual... Emerald Isle on a sunday afternoon is about as far from the PGA as you'll ever get...  tennis shoes and jeans and beer and frisbee golfers everywhere...  not a lot formality on who shot first or from where,  they didn't seem to be keeping score or care about score at all for that matter...so I didn't pick up on any of the clues at all... just seemed like a little father-son time...  maybe one visiting the other so they decided to share the time on the course..  

finally after a few holes together, son tells me,  "My dad's got alzheimer's....   diagnosed at 61...  he loves golf, so anytime I can get him out here to play I'm happy to do it.."  

duh...  ok - that explained it,  all the stuff I'd passed off...  putting the ball then following it, finishing out when - by all the grace of the Royal and Ancient,  he should be marking and waiting for me as a I was away...

Hey - I see skatepunks in dreadlocks and flipflops playing this course...  like I said, far cry from the PGA, and I'm not about to call honors... it's all casual here...

so then I didn't much change my behaviour,  but I changed my attitude and I watched them in a little different light..

I watched the love and the care and the patience that a son shows a father who's leaving him far too soon in a way that's cruel beyond what should be allowed in this world...

thought of losing my own father at 19 and not having the chance to do even that...

of my mother's dementia thirty years later and the toll it took on the family

thought of myself and my own sons and hoped I'd be half that lucky if I ever lived to be that unlucky...

and I just had a damn good time...

we hit some good shots and some bad shots - he flew the green on 10, landed somewhere in weeds on the bank behind it... was damn near back in his cart when I hollered and he turned to see his ball rolling onto the back of the green, then damn near in the hole....

he had honors on 11... hit up... and then promptly walked off to the green, leaving me to watch and wait as he enjoyed warm sun shining down on him through the cold air while he strolled from tee to green..

he putted out, then cheerily waved to thank me for my patience, and went on to the next hole as if I'd always just been the guy who was waiting on the tee behind him...

The guy who'd just played 5 or 6 of the most memorable and meaningful holes of golf he'd ever played in his life...