Today I was telling a friend about when I used to play golf. We sold most of my golf clubs last week as they were just taking up space. Golf has been a casualty of my Long Covid. I was never very good but I really enjoyed the time with friends and family, and the beauty of the golf courses. Anyone who has played a lot of golf will tell you on most any round you will hit a shot or two that look like you should be playing pro. The other 98… well not so much. Those magic moments keep you coming back and saying things like “I can play this game”.
The subject turned to the last round of golf I ever played with my dad Bill. We were at the Alamosa “Cattails Golf Course”. When we lived there for those 11 years my dad loved coming down to play with us. We did one of two things, go fishing or play golf. This would have been about 1995, as I remember I was using my new clubs that my dad had bought me as a gift for completing my doctorate. He would have been about 73 and I about 46. My dad was not a great golfer but he was steady. He was not a big hitter, either, but on this particular day it all came together for him. On the last hole he counted up our scores and he was leading by double digits. When we finished he was six over par. “Mark, that is the best round of golf I have ever played”.
It was one of those perfect days. The course was not crowded and we played as a twosome. I do remember the deer were everywhere and the course was in mint condition. The beauty of the Sangre de Cristos to the east and the San Juans to the west encircled us. The course ran next to the Rio Grande river which provided verdant company. Dad was chipping like Arnold Palmer and putting like Tiger Woods. Well, that is a stretch but he was better than I ever remember him playing.
That was an unexpected treasure. It was the next spring that he was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis and told me he was given about three years to live. In that same timeframe we moved to the center of Denver…so much for golf and fishing.
Today, when I was sharing that story with my friend the whole experience was relived in my heart. As my dad’s health slipped away, I do remember us talking about that day and how it became a capstone round of golf for a guy who was lucky to break 90 only a couple of times in his life.
My dad has been gone for over 25 years but today I played a round of golf with him in my memory. My grandson Miko’s 25th birthday is today. He never met “Wild Bill Pumphrey”. I am going to give him two antique clubs that were my dad’s. He got them when he he caddied at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs in the 1930’s. I am also going to give him the clubs my dad bought me that very special year. He is the best athlete in the family. Perhaps someday he might shoot the round of his life with them…
Onward and Upward,
Mark
Lyfting Me Up 