A tribute to "The Gatekeeper"

[Joe_Tucholski]

I found a set of my great grandfathers hickory clubs in our basement when we lived in CT.  We had about 1.5 acres and I can remember my dad getting real pissed off when he found out I was hitting his balls into the woods.  I got a bit of a yelling and remember him talking about hitting $1 at a time into the woods.  After learning the golf balls were off limits I took the heads of my little sisters Barbie's and hit them around the back yard as the hair created a parachute.  Eventually my dad who didn't really golf much (and now plays basically when visiting me) took me out to the 9 hole course at the Groton Sub Base.

When we moved to Maine I got my first set of clubs (Ping Eye 2's - my dad had a set and still uses them) I got a summer membership at York Golf and Tennis but honestly didn't play all that much as other sports took most of my time.

After moving to CA baseball tryouts started before the soccer season ended and I was a bit cocky (played varsity baseball as a freshman) so skipped another week of tryouts after soccer season ended when a girl came from Maine to visit.  Since I only went to about 3 days of the 15 days of tryouts I didn't even make the JV team that year so started to play golf every day with my best friend.  That's when the addiction started.

[Matthew Rose]

My grandfather was really the catalyst in my family; he started playing after he got out of the Air Force. Of his three kids, my dad ended up being the most interested and took it up himself in his teens. He sort of let it go for awhile once he started a family of his own, but around  the time that I was born, they became good friends with the golf professional who lived in the apartment three doors down from us. That pro was a decent player who played in the '77 PGA at Pebble and the '78 US Open at Cherry Hills and ran all the municipal courses in Lincoln, Nebraska before getting into some legal trouble.

My older brother showed an affinity for the game early and he spent a couple of summers in Houston with the aforementioned grandfather (who lived on Hearthstone CC) and took some lessons; I was too young to play myself but I picked the game up once I got to be about 6 or 7. We moved to Wisconsin soon after that and for my 9th birthday in 1986, I got a season pass ($75!) to our local muni. I played that whole summer. My brother became a very good player (finished above a 20-something Steve Stricker in a 36 hole event) and was a club pro himself in a few different places before getting out of the golf business altogether.

I got a 3 1/2 year old son and another due to come out literally any day.... my first born has already played our par-3 course a couple of times, although he struggles to hit a full shot, he is quite adept with a putter (though he seems to show a fondness for a raking, anchored stroke.... I better nip that in the bud!).

[Kris Shreiner]

Caddie golf. The gatekeeper for tens of thousands throughout the game's history. No one in my family played. I remember the day vividly. It was early Spring, 1972. I was bass fishing on a pond by the first Hole, at Radnor Valley C.C., much earlier than usual due to a freakish warm spell that rarely occurred back then. I had two nice bass already on my stringer and I look across and see a buddy of mine  walking down the fairway with two bags on his shoulders. I knew nothing about golf and yelled over to him "Hey Bobby, check out these two bass." His eyes about popped out of his head when he saw the two beauties I hoisted up. "Wow" he said," I wish I could join you but I gotta stay with my loop!"
I asked him what he was doing and he said "caddying." When he told me it paid $7 bucks a bag plus tip and he earned $20.00 a round for a good job my jaw dropped. We both delivered papers in the morning and were lucky to make $40 for a whole month of work!. I asked he if I could get a job there and he told me to come with him the next morning and talk to the caddie-master.
The next day I embarked on my first loop and that was it. I loved the job. Outside. Helping players. Learning this awesome, devilish game. Went off to college... thanks to money earned caddying during high-school, and a partial J.Wood Caddie Scholarship that was funded by thoughtful and generous members of my and other Philadelphia area clubs.

The game, through caddie-golf and beyond, has given me so much...I can NEVER fully repay that debt. But I will die trying.

Cheers,
Kris

[Kirk Gill]

I've enjoyed reading these stories, and I had to think a lot about who or what was the gatekeeper for me and golf. My dad died when I was young and he never played golf at all, and while my grandfather had a dusty set of clubs down in his basement that I checked out, he never played that I can remember. But the more I think of it, Jack Nicklaus was my gatekeeper. My other grandparents (the no-clubs-in-the-basement ones) lived in Upper Arlington, Ohio, and that was where Nicklaus was from. As a young kid I had an ice cream soda at the Nicklaus drug store. I had an Arlington Golden Bears sweater. And I watched Jack Nicklaus on tv. That was the genesis of my fascination with golf, with my own insistence on learning to play, and getting some clubs of my own.