"Do tell, it must be a good one!"
Ok, let's see how to preface this.
This goes back maybe forty five years now. My Dad was at Seminole for a long time and back then and for a number of years there was a wonderful president of Seminole by the name of Alan Ryan. Alan Ryan was about the nicest and most considerate man I've ever met in golf and everyone loved the guy. He was the president of Seminole for quite some time who preceded George Coleman who the golf tournament is now named for.
Alan Ryan's wife Gracie was one of the most remarkable ladies I've ever known and equally as nice and considerate as Alan. Gracie just loved golf and played every day at Seminole. Gracie had a real limp, and I don't know why but it affected her swing and walk and everything. But Gracie was one of the most competitive golfers I ever saw but in a nice way. She hated to lose and loved to bet and gamble and knew what was going on with everyone all the time.
My Dad loved to play with Gracie and they played all the time. Gracie was so into betting and gambling on any sport---golf, football, basketball whatever that Dad and Gracie actually used to make book with the membership of Seminole and others on any sport event anyone wanted to bet on. I think they actually thought they could make some dough on the vig of their own bookmaking----it was hilarious---they were on the phone together all the time on the big games trying to balance out their "book".
Anyway, that's a long preface to Gracie's golf and the betting. I'd basically go down there during Christmas and spring and Dad always took me up there to play with Gracie. Dad always had to play against Gracie (they were so competitive I guess they could never bring themselves to play together) and they knew each other's games so well and they had so much going on during those matches that the 17th hole always seemed to be central to the outcome one way or another. A bunch of times I played with Gracie against Dad and Glenna Collett Vare (often considered to be the greatest American woman amateur--who at that time was in her late 60s or 70s).
Dad told me early on to just watch how Gracie went about playing the 17th hole and that after a while I'd find it incredible and fascinating. I probably played with Dad and Gracie Ryan 50 times over the years. Gracie could not hit the ball far enough to get her tee shot all the way to the 17th green surface and she'd take out her driver and land it right on the walk-up between the fronting bunkers that could not have been more than two steps wide and bounce it onto the green. She did it so often that when you'd congratulate her for it she would just smile like there was no way that wouldn't happen. Even the caddies would chuckle and be amazed.
That shot of Gracie's on #17 became famous at Seminole---it was almost like she never missed that walkup between the bunkers with her driver that couldn't have been two steps wide.
There really isn't any run-up or bounce-in option on Seminoles's #17 except for Gracie Ryan. It was something else how she used that walk-in between the fronting bunkers as her strategy time after time.
Those are the little things I love about golf. I'm sure Gracie Ryan is gone now but what a lady she was--what fun it was to play golf with people like that---she loved it all so and she was so much fun competitively. It was great fun and it's a wonderful memory now.