Sunday, December 20, 2009

It's Golf Season--Almost


December 22 is one of my favorite days of the year. That's when winter officially arrives and the days start getting longer. From that day forward it's only 68 days to March 1; the official opening day for golf season 2010.
I've had a number or requests to see my actual golf swing so if you take a good hard look at the photo you will see yours truly finishing what appears to be a perfectly struck 4 iron. It's either me or Ben Hogan. I'm not real sure.
This morning, while working out at the gym, I remembered the greatest golf shot by an amateur I've ever seen. I have told a few of my buddies about it and thought I'd pass it along. It was the Fall of 1982 and I was working the counter at a combination driving range and nine hole course in Davenport, Iowa. There is a world renowned chiropractic college in Davenport called the Palmer School. Students from all over the world come to the River City to learn the fine art of body adjustment. On one particular day a group of Swedish students came to play nine holes. Grasp this. The kids had never in their lives swung a golf club. They didn't have clubs and had to rent sets. I directed them to the first hole, a 175 yard par three. Since they had never been around a course I thought I'd watch just to make certain a club didn't fly out of their hands and onto Northwest Blvd. The first one on the tee box, I believe his name was Jesper, swung with all his might and the ball flew in the direction of the green. The ball did more than hit the green. It rolled in the direction of the flag and plopped into the cup for a hole in one! On that day I don't think the kid realized what he had accomplished.
Well, the outcome of this is that student quit school and went on to play on the PGA. He is the well known Jesper Parnevik and he credits me for his success.
I made up the last part but the rest of the story is quite accurate.

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