Kids On The Course

The dominance of Koreans on the LPGA, of Dominicans in the MLB and African-Americans in the NBA has fueled the prediction that in 20 years there won't be any Euro-Americans playing major league sports. That may be so, but it's also so what!

When you take a look at each of the groups involved that produce these athletes one might ask the question, "What are they doing that we're not?" The answers, and the results, are more complicated than they appear.

The Korean parents who have coerced their daughters into doing grueling exercises, practicing all day, forfeiting their education, friendships and normal social development in order to win golf tournaments may get great golfers. But they won't get grandchildren.

Most of the Dominican Republic is shockingly poor. If the same resources were given to education and literacy that have been given to baseball, this island could be the next Singapore.

Something like 80% of African-American school age boys believe they can play pro sports, mostly basketball, and yet more than half of them drop out of high school before graduating. High school drop outs don't make the major leagues--they also don't get jobs or have a future.

Americans idolize athletes and celebrities, winners and long shots. The irony is maybe it's our own culture that keeps these other cultures in place.

Charlie, Lyle and I were supposed to play golf today. I’ve been able to get the Swing Setter to snap properly most of the time and it was a lovely, albeit cold fall morning. Lyle wanted to play a new course. I just assumed it would be easy to get on but silly me.

Charlie called ahead and found out frost on the fairways and greens pushed back all tee times to after noon. Since we were going out to play while Jonah played fall baseball (double header) we’d either have to kill a couple of hours and play nine holes or find another course.

Last week the municipal course in Joliet was almost empty so we really didn’t think much about tee times. Plus, muny courses are often less fussy about frost on the greens.

But, we didn’t count on the Bears game.

Bears game! What Bears game? The Chicago Bears play Monday night this week.

Well, there were TWO outings playing on the Joliet muny course when we got there. I didn’t find out who would schedule an outing this late in the year or why there had to be two of them, but bottom line was we weren’t playing golf. All we could figure out was the outings were scheduled that day because the Bears were not playing.

So, I will have to remember football and frost before scheduling fall golf.

I saved this funny story from a Readers Digest (courtesy of my mother-in-law) that sorta goes with this entry:

During an intense discussion about ethics and the nature of human conflict, a teacher posed this question to his 12-grade class: “Sports are a reflection of our culture. What would sports be without conflict?”

A student raised his hand. “Golf,” he said.

The boys (sons, in this case) and I were in Huron, OH for our annual trip where we stay at my family’s summer cottage. Huron is a little town on Lake Erie, about 15 minutes away from Cedar Point, which is always part of this visit. (The only people who might know Cedar Point better than we do are the workers).

Vacation golf is it’s own game. Good rounds are magical, bad rounds don’t count. Nine holes work better than 18 and driving a cart is part of “being on vacation.” Huron, and the other “summer” towns edging Lake Erie east to Cleveland have a plethora of golf courses—nice ones, too. We played three of them this year, plus Lakewood Country Club.

There are at least two huge billboards advertising KEYS GOLF COURSE & PRACTICE RANGE.along Route 2 and US250, giving the impression that this is some course. In fact, Keys is a goat ranch with ancient facilities, nubby greens and wide open fairways. You have to play the same nine holes twice (from different tees) to play 18 holes.

I played my best round of the week at Keys. Not what I hoped or expected.

Another course in Huron is Thunderbird Hills. There’s the North Course and the (much) newer South Course, both very nice. The original pro shop was featured in Golf Magazine’s 100 Best Pro Shops for years. About six years ago the owner decided he’d rather make money than look good and split up the shop into two, few-frills facilities, one at each course. Repairs, trade-ins and used equipment are now part of the offering.

We played both courses where Lyle (our youngest son) shot his best round, I shot my worst round and I discovered the term “links course” means something different in Ohio than in Chicago. “Links” means fewer trees than “traditional”—what you almost always find on a newer course.

The boys played Lakewood Country Club with my brother, a member, and got to have caddies. Lyle is a caddie at Ridge Country Club and was hoping to learn something. Instead, his caddie ignored Lyle most of the round, mixed up his clubs and didn’t bother with Lyle’s ball if Jack’s ball was not nearby. Of course Lyle didn’t say anything, but he grumbled loudly to me later about how badly he was treated. I wonder if that’s typical of caddies who carry kids’ bags.

I got a last nine holes in at Sawmill Creek, a resort course nearby. Sawmill Creek is pretty, short and surprisingly hard: narrow fairways and water make accuracy important. I was losing whatever swing I had and barely recovered by the last two holes to consider ever playing golf again. But here’s the benefit of vacation golf—it’s easy to forget a bad round.