A round in the rain

[James the Hogan Fan]

(This takes place in Finland, the dialogue is translated from Finnish)

 

I am sitting on a train after playing one of the most beautiful rounds of golf in my life. Not for my score, which was bad, the course, which was good, or the weather, which made it through my otherwise very waterproof shoes after 9 holes.

 

It was the guy I played with. He's under the umbrella in the picture. I come to the first tee with a 3:30 tee time, and Im supposed to be paired up with three others, but they all no-show. So this old guy is there and asks if I wanna play with him. He has an ancient sweater with the club logo. I say sure and he says "you know I was once the pro here" and I said "well no pressure on me when I'm playing the blues." And he smiled and said "I haven't played the blues in a long time now that I'm the wrong side of 75. But I'll play them today."

 

And so we played and he told his life story. He started golfing at age 17, back when Finland had just one course he biked to play after hours. How he helped start another club in Helsinki. He told me about his job in airline maintenance that took him around the world, how he always had the clubs with him. How he wanted so desperately to win his club championship and finally managed it by beating his brother of all people.

 

He told how he took a silver medal in the Finnish diving championships. He told stories from the pro-ams at the Vierumäki Challenge on the Euro Challenge tour. He said as he got older he got better at golf as he had more time to play it and eventually became a teaching pro. His handicap eventually was as good as +4.5, and he played in s number of Senior Qualifiers. He talked about being on the range at a qualifier and seeing Tom Watson behind him. ("You hit balls next to Tom Watson?!?" "-I'd like to say he hit balls next to me")

He had moved to live by the golf course with his wife until she passed 2 years ago. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's the same month. He said now he just plays because he has nothing else left in life to do. The club has given him free rounds for the rest of his life. 

 

And he was good. Not very long, but it didn't matter because he'd just hit driver off the deck until he got close enough to use something else. You could see the talent was there but the body could no longer perform for it's owner to the needed degree. He could chip like a god but he said the Parkinson's had given him woeful putting yips. But we played and walked and talked, and I told my stories about growing up in the Tiger era, and how I came to love the game. He told about mini-tours and teaching lessons.

 

I had an ok round going until the rain made the course almost unplayable. But we played it out anyway and shook hands and I walked off 18 one way and he the other. As I sit on this train now reflecting over the round, I think how I would have been able to sit with him for hours talking golf and life. I'm glad I got the 4 hours I did.

 

[Loki]

Did you at least get his contact info so you could play/hang out again?

 

Nice story!

[caniac6]

Sounds like a great day! If I could play like that every day, I would never care, or probably, remember what I shot.

[tannyhoban]

Great story. Life throws them your way if you let it.

[MattyO1984]

Really cool story.

[mizuno player]

That's just one of the many great things about golf. Meeting that really interesting nice random partner. Hope you got contact info and play again. 

[James the Hogan Fan]

20 hours ago, mizuno player said:

That's just one of the many great things about golf. Meeting that really interesting nice random partner. Hope you got contact info and play again. 

Unfortunately this was more of a destination course I was passing through. I don't know when or if I'll ever play there again. 

[DArnie]

Great story!

[Qqq123xx]

Great stuff. And pics. 

[shagmoreline]

Golf atoms colliding, wonderful story.

[Dr. Block]

Excellent story, thank you.  You are a talented writer. 

 

I've always enjoyed playing with older highly skilled players.  They may have lost their distance, but they never lose their patience, short game touch, and ability to manage the course and their game.  I always learn a lot. 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Dr. Block

[EMA1]

Wonderful story, thank you for sharing.

[GoletaGolfer]

On 9/5/2020 at 10:35 AM, James the Hogan Fan said:

(This takes place in Finland, the dialogue is translated from Finnish)

 

I am sitting on a train after playing one of the most beautiful rounds of golf in my life. Not for my score, which was bad, the course, which was good, or the weather, which made it through my otherwise very waterproof shoes after 9 holes.

 

It was the guy I played with. He's under the umbrella in the picture. I come to the first tee with a 3:30 tee time, and Im supposed to be paired up with three others, but they all no-show. So this old guy is there and asks if I wanna play with him. He has an ancient sweater with the club logo. I say sure and he says "you know I was once the pro here" and I said "well no pressure on me when I'm playing the blues." And he smiled and said "I haven't played the blues in a long time now that I'm the wrong side of 75. But I'll play them today."

 

And so we played and he told his life story. He started golfing at age 17, back when Finland had just one course he biked to play after hours. How he helped start another club in Helsinki. He told me about his job in airline maintenance that took him around the world, how he always had the clubs with him. How he wanted so desperately to win his club championship and finally managed it by beating his brother of all people.

 

He told how he took a silver medal in the Finnish diving championships. He told stories from the pro-ams at the Vierumäki Challenge on the Euro Challenge tour. He said as he got older he got better at golf as he had more time to play it and eventually became a teaching pro. His handicap eventually was as good as +4.5, and he played in s number of Senior Qualifiers. He talked about being on the range at a qualifier and seeing Tom Watson behind him. ("You hit balls next to Tom Watson?!?" "-I'd like to say he hit balls next to me")

He had moved to live by the golf course with his wife until she passed 2 years ago. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's the same month. He said now he just plays because he has nothing else left in life to do. The club has given him free rounds for the rest of his life. 

 

And he was good. Not very long, but it didn't matter because he'd just hit driver off the deck until he got close enough to use something else. You could see the talent was there but the body could no longer perform for it's owner to the needed degree. He could chip like a god but he said the Parkinson's had given him woeful putting yips. But we played and walked and talked, and I told my stories about growing up in the Tiger era, and how I came to love the game. He told about mini-tours and teaching lessons.

 

I had an ok round going until the rain made the course almost unplayable. But we played it out anyway and shook hands and I walked off 18 one way and he the other. As I sit on this train now reflecting over the round, I think how I would have been able to sit with him for hours talking golf and life. I'm glad I got the 4 hours I did.

 

Lovely. I am so glad you created that day for yourself.