I Was The Parent Of A Junior Competitive Golfer--Part 2

     In part one I talked about how being a parent of a junior golfer is a great way to create memories and to grow closer to you children. I wrote about having many memories of having many memories of taking my daughter to tournaments and such, but I didn't share any of them.  I wanted to keep the post short and readable so I didn't specifically write about them, even though my eyes were tearing over with emotion as the many memories came to mind. Well, I have a box of Kleenex here by my desk and hope to share some of those memories with you.
     My daughter Rebekah was very involved in junior golf. As I said in my last post, she was playing softball but was not getting to play much because of the fact that most of the teams she was chosen to play on were more like social clubs instead of playing the best players. She worked very hard to learn the catcher's position, had a great arm and was a powerful hitter. She didn't get to play.  I coached a golf team and she would tag along to practices.  At one point she asked to have a club put into her hand and she was hooked for life. We told her that she could play both softball and golf if she wanted but she chose golf as it was a sport that she didn't have to depend on a coach to put her in the game. She could play, and her success depended on her.That is one of the beauties of the game of golf. You don't get chosen for the team or get to play because of a personality contest.  You get to play by entering or just playing.
     Rebekah played many tournaments hosted by The Northern California Junior Golf Association.  I remember the rainy April she played in the Len Ross Junior held in Fresno, Ca.  It hadn't rained all year, but God had a different plan for thess couple of days,  The sky opened up and it was cold.  She did well in the tournament and we devotedly followed her throughout the rainy ordeal. Everyone was miserable, cold and wet.  I asked her if she had fun and her answer was, "Dad, I felt like a drowned rat, but it was a blast."
     Each year in July I think, The City of San Leandro, California would host a junior tournament. The course venue was Monarch Bay, which sits directly on The Sam Francisco Bay just south of Oakland, California.  This was a yearly road trip for Rebekah and I.  We would get there the day before the tournmant and spend the night, with the tradition being we would play Monarch Bay the day before the tournament.
    We would always play Monarch Bay in the afternoon. Since the course is situated directly on San Francisco Bay the course gets windy in the afternoon--very windy.  You want to play the course early in the morning before the wind kicks up. We talk about our wind blown rounds at Monarch Bay still to this day.
     One year we decided to play in a tournament we hadn't play in.  The tournament was held at Crystal Springs on the San Francisco Peninsula and was scheduled for late July.  If you know anything about the weather in the San Francisco area during the summer, it can be quite chilly.  Mark Twain said it beat when he said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was the summer I spent in San Francisco." Temperatures rarely go over the eighties.
     We left our home thoroughly prepared for the chilly climate of what is The San Francisco Bay Area. Yes, we did dress in layers as you are supposed to do because the San Francisco climate can be totally changeable. It's always cold and just gets colder--normally.  OK, so we guessed wrong.  The temperature soared to near 100 degrees.  It was hot, and we were even hotter the way we were dressed. It is fun and we can laugh at this now, but I can tell you that we were miserable and nearly suffered from heat stroke. She played very well, even with all those clothes on.  Guess who carried those clothes as she layered down.  I felt like an Andean llama carrying all her clothes and my sweater as well.
     In her high school freshman year her school team went to the California State High School Golf Finals in Murrieta, California. The tournament was held at the SCGA member's course and we went down two days before so that we could play the course in order for her to become familiar with the course.  We got there and was told that she couldn't play the course and would be disqualified in the touranment if she did. The pro at the desk explained this to us and suggested another course in the area to play that we would enjoy.  He got us a time, and off we went to a course nearby called Temeku Hills that has been renamed.  We had a lot of fun together.  She won $5 from me that day.
     All through her junior golf career and her junior college career we played a lot of golf together and she played in a lot of tournaments. The most important part of this time was the quality time we spent together not only on the course but off the course as well.  We have fond memories of the time spent in the car and talking, the restaurants we ate in and the funny things that happen along the way. It was a magical time spent together.  We still talk about the memories that we made together.

She would always get this look on her face as she would smash her drive forty yards past mine.  Hey, but I could putt better.