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Lend a Hand, Help a Heart...

Last month I did some serious jump roping. Dad says I’m no Rocky but he also said at age eight I’m better now than he ever was. No wonder he’s bald, I think the rope must have shaved the hair upon impact!
I was jumping rope because my gym teacher, Mrs. Moore, set up a program that encouraged us kids to ask for donations to help raise money for the American Heart Association. Aunt Joni was my big donor, with a twenty dollar gift.
The hardest part of the afternoon was when I walked in the gym and realized I was one of only ten boys in a group of 80 girls...Dad says that’s good odds and I’ll understand in a few years?
Dad asked why I didn’t change my mind when I saw all the girls and not one other kid from my class. I told him it was for charity and I like to help with stuff like that. Believe it or not Dad once again turned the talk into golf.
He asked if I knew who Vijay Singh is. I said I did because I’ve seen him with the kids from St. Judes raising money with his eagles charity. For every eagle Vijay makes this year he’ll donate money to St. Judes. I know about St. Judes because I raise money for them each year with my Lemonade, Ice Cream, Popsicle stand.
Dad says that all professional golf tournaments are based on giving money to charity. The WGC Bridgestone event in Akron gives millions of dollars to northeast Ohio charities and the Memorial in Dublin does the same thing. While the people that run those events do great work there are thousands of folks that run local golf outings that also generate millions of dollars for charity throughout the country. These people have other jobs but want to give back and find doing it through golf is both enjoyable and rewarding.
I hope that everyone reading this will help with their local charity golf tournament if not as an organizer, maybe as a player. What better excuse could you have to play more golf than by helping charity. Just think of it, you could tell your boss you’ll need tomorrow off because you have to play in a golf outing or the town charity might be in trouble. Heck I might even use that one with Miss Wenger, my teacher. I could tell her...well you understand.
Seriously, please help. Every little bit matters.
-Jack

Dad Says is monthly column that shares our publisher’s world through the eyes and words of his three sons- Jack, Joe & Ben.

April-

Dad has been really busy over the last couple months, traveling to golf shows and putting together the newspapers for this year.
My brothers and I have been busy too.  Grandpa and P bought us a Wii for Christmas and I’m getting pretty good at tennis and bowling, even getting close to beating my big brother Jack.
So this is the first time I’ve written a “Dad Says” column, he said I’m old enough now and I really wanted to give it try.  The first thing I did to get ready to write this was ask Dad about Ohio’s Golf Newspaper and the website.  I tried to ask him about the radio show he’s been doing every Sunday (we have to be really quiet) but he said lets just talk about one thing at a time.  So I asked “Dad what is the newspaper about?”  Dad says it’s about golf.  Uh yeah, I knew that.  He said let me read you our creed.  Creed?  Look Dad, when I decided to write this I wasn’t looking to learn all sorts of new words or languages or whatever a creed is.
Then he set me straight.
Dad said a creed tells a short story about who or what you are.  A creed is like a million years older than a mission statement but I think they are probably the same thing.
Dad says the Ohio’s Golf creed tells people what the company believes and it serves as a guide at times of decisions and planning. 
The creed says that golf in Ohio stacks up with any golf in the land.  Dad says that he knows of no other state that offers so many different types of championship golf.  US Opens, PGA Championships, Ryder Cups, Solheim Cups they have all been played in Ohio and the cherry on the top is Jack Nicklaus.  Now Jack I know.  We live a few doors down from where Mr. Nicklaus lived and every time we go to Dairy Queen dad slows down the car and says “now boys you know who lived there….”, the things we do for ice cream.
The creed also talks about caddies and how they should make a comeback.  All I know about that is if I don’t get the chance to drive a golf car because of this creed, the creed’s going find the can.
Dad says the creed also has some stuff about how far the golf ball goes.  Now for me the ball will never go far enough.  I can barely see the thing when Tiger hits it but since everybody else seems to hit it in the water, like Ernie Els, I think they should make it go farther until the water’s not an issue.
So a creed is a creed and I’m happy I learned the creed for Ohio’s Golf Newspaper and website.  Dad says the entire creed is printed in this issue (print version Mar '08) and I’m sure I’ll have to read that at some point but for now I have a friend coming over, we’ve got a big tennis match on the Wii!

-Joe

Well, last month my brother Joey started Super Pre-School and I began the third grade.  Some of you may not know this but third grade is when things start to get serious.  My classroom is in the building where Jack Nicklaus used to go to school and the fifth graders are in the same hallways as me and my friends.  As a matter of fact, I’m actually on a kickball team with some fifth graders and I even have homework every night.  I hope Mom doesn’t know that.

When my Dad told me that Jack Nicklaus used to go to school where I do, it made me think about how old the building must be, I think when Nicklaus played golf they didn’t even have Tiger Woods Playstation or anything.  How could a building last that long?  I asked my Dad and once again we ended up talking right through dinner and almost missed dessert!

Dad said that things that are important and special last because of the people that take of them.  My school has been around for a while, but I love it.  The playground is clean and once in a while, we plant trees to keep things new and growing.  When I told Dad we plant trees he asked what else we do.  After I thought about it I realized I don’t do a lot to take care of the school but I always use the school.  I asked Dad if I should feel bad about that and he said not necessarily.  WOW!  He told all of us at the table that things work like that; older people often take care of things for younger people because they believe that as the young grow older they too will take care of things.  He said there are hundreds of stories about golf course superintendents that even after they have retired continue to work around the golf course because they want to set an example for the younger employees.  It can be discouraging when someone damages property but what is more discouraging is when the maintenance staff becomes so overwhelmed that they do not repair the damage.  In golf, you very rarely see that.  The pride and the passion that the guys who take care of golf courses show in the their work is awesome.  Dad says that they get to work at around five in the morning and without them we would not have the beautiful properties we do to play golf on or just enjoy when driving past.  Dad thinks every kid that enjoys the outdoors should work at a golf course for two summers during high school.  He says that is when you begin to learn the importance of taking care of something that doesn’t belong to you but is entrusted to you.  The people that take care of my school do not own it, except I think the principal maybe does, not sure- anyway, they take care of it and they are always working to make it better.  I think that is really nice and I’m going to have to remember to thank them.  When you think about it, if people didn’t do things like that, we wouldn’t live in a very nice place.  He says he and Mom have entrusted the basement to me and obviously I don’t understand the concept.  He’s probably right but I think after writing this, it is starting to sink in.

I’m off to football practice.  Enjoy the President’s Cup and on a personal note, I do want to mention that Dad actually went to Appalachian St. for college.  While he kept telling me I better write about his Mountaineers this month I thought I would rather tell you about another one of our talks.  They can be long at times but I always learn something and I hope you enjoy me telling you about them.

Us kids learned a new word this past week, “irony”.  Dad kept walking around saying “Oh the irony”.  He thinks it’s ironic that the Yankees kept playing so bad until they called up some young kids from the farm?....don’t quite get how they farm and play baseball….All I know is Joba Chamberlain and Phillip Hughes are dealing and I sure am glad I didn’t have to face them in my baseball tryouts last week!

The biggest piece of irony this month had nothing to do with baseball it had everything to do with last month’s column, Michelle Wie and the Greater Columbus Amateur Championship.

Dad had picked out an article last month from the Duramed Futures Tour (minors for LPGA) for me to read at least once a week.  The article really is good.  It speaks about having the courage to finish what you start, even if you know it won’t be your best.  Last week I had one of the worst tryouts of my life for a travel baseball team; my first ever “cut” tryout.  On day one, I didn’t hit a lick and I think my glove was worse, Dad even said my hustle was below par.  He tried to talk to me when we got home, tried to tell me that I needed to relax and think back to a couple of times over the last two years that I hit walk-off doubles.  I didn’t listen to much of it at all.  All I could think about was how I might be able to fake an injury as an excuse to not go to day two of the tryouts.  I could feel the tears in my throat, I hated it.  I’ve never struggled in baseball.  It’s always been my thing, it’s where I go in my mind during thunderstorms and when the clock turns 7:14 my alarm rings in honor of the Babe.  I knew I was not going to day two of the tryouts!  Then, I thought about Michelle Wie.

But back to the irony.  Sometimes God has a way of timing things out, just to make sure you shake your head and say “but I thought I fixed that!”  Thing is, you can’t fix much with an article.  You just get to write your two cents worth and hope it sinks in.

At this years Greater Columbus Amateur Championship no less than eight players quit in the middle of their second round or at least didn’t turn in their score.  This was not the Greater Columbus Junior Championship, these were grown men.  Dad says he’s gotten a lot of emails complaining about this and that but he says none of it is good enough to quit.  He thinks it is ironic that grown men are taking Wie’s lead when one, she’s wrong and two, she’s like sixteen or something.  Why quit?  Well I told Dad I wanted to quit my tryouts and he quickly snapped back “but did you?”  I didn’t and I’m glad, but I told him I understand why people do.  It is hard to put yourself out there.  Your name ends up on a list of “cuts” or your score is printed for all to see.  Then he set me straight.

“99% of the time it’s not about the score for amateurs is about the experience.  It’s about putting yourself in a spot to win or have to make a putt to finish alone in third.  It’s about testing yourself and learning about yourself.  It’s about you, yourself and the voice inside that says I tried as hard as I could and here’s my score.  Don’t ever let yourself be defined by the score, be defined by the voice”

Now I understand what last month’s article is about.  I know how those girls feel when they play bad and they DON’T walk off the course.  They show up for the last round knowing that 80 might be their best that day but they play.  I guess maybe some of what Dad talked to me about, did sink in.  I played about as well as I can on day two and I actually made the team.  First thing Dad did was tell me not to gloat but I saw his smile before he turned around and I know he’s excited for the next season.

As the senior statesman of this group, I will be the first to drive a golf cart with my Dad.  Realizing this season might be the year, I asked Dad if I needed to look into insurance, permit, etc.  Big mistake.

He had just returned from a meeting with Mr. Noonan and the Evans Scholars at Ohio St.  He told me he didn’t want to hear about carts and to go read something about Derek Jeter.  Our house is golf 24/7, so I knew this was serious.  Next thing I know he’s on the phone with Grandpa solving the shrinking pipeline of new golfers.  The call went something like this:

“Golf professionals I talk to tell me about the fewer and fewer NEW golfers coming to the game.  Tiger was supposed to fix all this but that flame died in 1999.  How many caddie programs do you think have been canceled in the last 30 years?  I think it could be as high 2,000-3,000.  Maybe there’s an average of 50 caddies per (Inverness has 500+).  That works out to something like 125,000 less caddies in America.  Doesn’t it stand to reason that about 80% of those kids would become golfers?  I think the invasion of carts may have been a bit shortsighted.”  Then Grandpa talks, probably about his hip or something.  Dad continues- “I know that carts were supposed to be financially rewarding but they erased new golfers!  Well maybe public and private courses should at least bring them back for 2 days a week.  That would still bring the kids back around the course and I have to believe it would be a great niche for some courses.  I would definitely play at a place that offered caddies.  If it meant I had to go there on Tuesdays or something I would because it would be a great opportunity to play golf in a new way.”  Grandpa again, then Dad- “Well I’m going to talk to the owners about it, it just makes too much sense”

Approaching the golden age of 8, I’m currently searching Amazon for my first pair of driving gloves; I still want to drive that cart.  Maybe I’d better play with Grandpa and those smelly cigars.  -Jack