Many apologies for the OT topic. I don't do this often on here, but I hope you'll understand why after reading this. Tony is my favorite golfer I've never met. Here's why:
I'm but a lowly self-employed t shirt printer, as many on here surely know. I've been printing for 25 years, and for one of my clients, a little over a decade. About 5 years ago, this particular client's mom stopped by the shop, with a couple sisters. They were and are wonderful Samoan women. The main one, I'd been printing for her son's soccer organization (they run a league for children who are disadvantaged in opportunities, literally driving a van around picking the kids up and driving them to fields to practice or play - and they won a national Futsal title a couple years ago!) for 10-15 years. He was a really nice guy, big and soft spoken, heart of gold. (Sadly, he passed at a young age from a heart attack.) Before he had passed, his mom stopped by one day with her sisters, asking about t's for their family reunion. They showed me an old shirt from a prior reunion, and I said, do you want yours to say "Finau" as this one does, and I pronounced it correctly. The mom looked at me surprised, and said, how do you know how to say that? And I smiled sheepishly and said, I'm kind of a golf nerd, and there's this guy who is a bit of a phenom named Tony Finau, and I assumed your name is pronounced the same way. She said to me: That's my nephew!
So I've followed his career more closely ever since. I've traded many emails with them as he climbed leaderboards with increasing regularity, though lately it's become so commonplace that I don't even bother anymore, I just do it when I see them, at work and elsewhere.
Trust me when I say, this family is special. I'm lucky, I get to print for a lot of great people, but this family, they are the nicest by a wide margin, absolute hearts of gold. Every single one of them, and I've met about 10 of them. I run into them occasionally in the area, and each time they greet me with a wide smile, and I am quick to return it. If I had a problem and needed someone to help, they would be the first people I'd call, outside of my family, and I know they'd be there, lending a hand.
What does this have to do with architecture? Nothing. This is just about life. Please take some time to watch the Feherty show with Tony if you can, and please root for him (which is really easy to do). He doesn't need your support, he'd doing fine on his own, but it can't hurt...
Thanks for your time, if you've read this. I just had to share it with my golf friends. Moderators, please feel free to delete the thread (after a few days, please
).