Southern California's No. 1 Golf Source
SITE
SEARCH
GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
Par for the Course
|
||||
 A memorable shot can happen when you least expect it. (PHOTO: Arkin Nordby) Recently, after one of those warmed-up hip and shoulder turns, I hit that rare but perfect shot that made me think, if only for a moment, “Boy, I can play this game!” Isn’t that the best part of playing golf? Those shots when all the stars align and all your moving body parts get to the right place at the right time and the ball takes off just like you saw it in your mind. I knew I was on to something when I started asking golfers if they had similar stories. Nobody had to “get back to me” or “think about it.” The memories of the perfect moment remained that vivid. Lee Tomlinson is a businessman who lives on the Westside of Los Angeles. He didn’t take up golf until his early 40s but was instantly hooked. Now 59, Tomlinson is good enough to have qualified for about every state and regional senior tournament there is. He’s never won but thinks it’s only a matter of time before he does. Tomlinson’s memorable shot didn’t come in a stroke-play event. “I entered this rather high-end charity tournament,” he said. “When I checked in they had three gorgeous cars on display, all hole-in-one prizes. You don’t think too much about the cars at these events but I couldn’t help but notice these were very expensive cars, and it’s fun to dream.” I nodded in agreement. Been there, done that. “I was playing pretty good that day,” he continued. “We get to this long, narrow, 200-yard par-3 hole with an elevated tee box. The pin is back left. I hit the ball and the shot shape was perfect. I thought I might be close but we couldn’t see the hole.” He did, however, see the group ahead waving frantically in his direction. “We get to the green and damned if the ball wasn’t in the cup,” Tomlinson said. “There were lots of back-slaps and smiles. We got to the clubhouse and the word had spread. Guys were congratulating me, buying me drinks. Then someone told me the bad news. They had three hole-in-one cars and I got the ace on the only hole without a car for a prize. “Can you believe that? I not only didn’t win the car, there wasn’t even a closest-to-the-pin prize!” Mark Hubbard’s most memorable shot came during a team competition between Woodland Hills Country Club and Porter Valley. “It was my last hole and I was 1-up in the match,” the Studio City accountant recalled about the round. “Our Woodland Hills County Club team was good that year but we needed to win this tournament to move on to the playoffs.” Hubbard’s voice grew more excited as he continued. “We both hit good drives,” he said. “He got his approach shot on the green, but I hit mine in the trap. I not only needed to get up and down to win the match, but my match was the last match of the day and now all my teammates were around the green watching.” I asked Hubbard if his throat tightened at the time? “That and other body parts,” he said with a chuckle. But he accomplished the task at hand with a sand save that saved the day for his team. “There’s something special about conjuring up the right shot at just the right moment,” he said. Jeff Felix’s most memorable shot is one I’ve never even fantasized about but is pretty cool nonetheless. Felix, 23, played on the golf team at Beverly Hills High School and had dreams of playing on the PGA Tour. Realizing that he needed a steady paycheck, however, the marketing major took a job at a bank. Just days before starting his new job, Felix made an appointment for a lesson with MountainGate Country Club teaching professional Gavin Witzer. He obviously paid attention, because Felix promptly made a double-eagle on the 541-yard, par-5 opening hole on MountainGate’s Lake course. No one in his threesome saw the ball go in the cup, but when they got to the green, his ball was wedged between the pin and the hole. I’m now convinced that every golfer has at least one shot they’ll never forget. But every time we play, we play in pursuit of replacing that memorable shot with an even better shot. That’s golf. Eric Tracy is also known as The Mulligan Man. He can be reached at eric@themulliganman.com. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
