With Father's Day coming up in June, which coincides with the 2nd major PGA Golf Tournament, the US Open, I've found a real "hole in one!"
Jack Nicklaus was someone I admired as a kid growing up in N'Awlins, as Daddy would usually spend his weekends watching the golf tournaments on tv.
(My father in the army)
(My father in the army)
While Dad never was a golfer, he enjoyed watching the game and seeing other golf pro folks like Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods battle out the matches on the greens.
How neat that the English Turn Golf course on the West Bank of New Orleans is a course designed by Jack!
Dad and I did go out a few times to play "Putt Putt" - that was the closest we came to making "holes in one" - which we did occasionally but on a smaller scale!
Dad instilled in me and my siblings the need to take a "swing at life" to the fullest and keep focused on the most important things in life - faith, family, and fun!
Dad was always optimistic about "Eagling or Birdying" in anything, as that was surely "par for the course of his life!"
Sure, he had some regular "Bogies in Life," like when his beloved Tulane Football Greenies would almost always lose to LSU, but he still got out of those "bunkers" and found a way to congratulate Uncle Warren - except in 1973 - when Tulane finally won after 25 years!
Dad achieved his own "Golf Grand Slam" better than Jack Nicklaus did when Dad would make "holes in one" per his "stock market caddying," and he got others to invest in "Tri-continental fund courses."
In early 2006 - after the "Gulf Storm Roughs of Katrina" were spread, it was so difficult to place Daddy in a nursing home for his 24-hour care needs after he and Mom were displaced and had moved in to stay with us.
Both Mom and Dad died later that year, but as Dad was known to have said about many things in life: "I was a lucky guy," and I certainly can attest that he certainly made many holes in one - and I am blessed to have been his son.
And as is in the golf tradition, I will now buy all a round of drinks for my dad's "holes in one" and hereby make a toast to all dads; prayers for healing and forgiveness to those who have had understandably difficult relationships with their dads.
