Dad's Birthday Thought

[profsmitty]

Been thinking about my Dad today. It would have been his 89th. He loved the game and was passionate about the PGA. This got me thinking, if you are of a "certain age" like yours truly, who was your Dad's favorite golfer. In my case, I'm pretty sure he would have said Julius Boros. He would alway tell me that if I could model my swing after anyone, it should be that beautiful, smooth swing of Boros' is in the back of my mind every time I swing a club.

 

How about you? What pro was your Dad's favorite?

 

By the way, happy birthday, Daddy. Hope you had a great round today.

 

Love,

 

Little Gee

[stixman]

I think this is a great thread, it really got me thinking.
Growing up in the UK shortly after WW2 was a very different and alien place to what it is now, although vestiges remain. My family, my father, believed that professional sport was not OK so home grown sporting heroes were thin on the ground. Wimbledon tennis was still amateur as was cricket. Amateur footballers were kept in the Club fold with 10£ notes stuffed into their boots before the game, the corinthian spirit was an ideal but in practice was total hypocrisy.
The closest we got as a golfing hero was Henry Cotton, the ultimate professional and years ahead of his time. The 'Establishment' felt that, as a Public ( English for expensive fee paying privately educated) schoolboy he had somehow sold out. I went to a couple of his clinics in my teens and was hugely impressed with his skill, strength and demeanor.
Btw, the 'Establishment' is alive and well in the R&A, EGU and BGCS, in case anyone was wondering if they missed the revolution....stick around.

[profsmitty]

It's a shame that some of the great non-US golfers were so unknown to my generation. Unless you were a complete die-hard, people like Cotton, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, etc were names we never heard much less saw.

[stixman]

[quote name='profsmitty' timestamp='1362484488' post='6550149']
It's a shame that some of the great non-US golfers were so unknown to my generation. Unless you were a complete die-hard, people like Cotton, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, etc were names we never heard much less saw.
[/quote]Cotton and Locke both competed on the US tour, Locke had so much success he was kicked out. Peter Thomson was not a lover of US style courses I read. I watched him play in an early Piccadilly World Match Play at Wentworth, real Rolls Royce swinger of a club.

[_MS22_]

Great thread. Makes me think that the trip I have planned in 2 months for my Dad's 60th is all the more money well spent. Flying us out to NorCal to play Pebble (and Spyglass, Spanish, Blackhorse, Pasa, and MPCC) as he never got the chance yet in 35 years of playing. I'm draining what I saved since my wedding last year but I'd love to do it while we can still enjoy it.

[freddiec]

My Dad has always been a huge part of my life. He was and still is (be 70 this year) a very good athlete. He could hit a ball out of a major league baseball field against a good fast ball back in the day, almost played AAA Baseball. He was very very long back in the day with a persimmon H and B which I have in my basement. I'm not sure who his favorite golfer was, most likely Palmer and Nicklaus. I know his Mom also a huge golfer loved Arnie. I used to play a lot with my Dad up until recently, used to take fall trips with him , just he and I to Naples, Fla ( a few years in a row in the late 90s early 2000s). I also have a twin bro also loves to play, the 3 of us have played 100s of round together. My biggest thrill was when I was in my 20s when I could really play, ripping drives with my dad standing behind me admiring them. We always want to please Dad, don't we. Golf is a great game, for many reasons, being able to share Q time with Dad on the course is something you can't replace.

[MrParr1Noid]

Every time I enter one of these threads, I come in wondering what's going with the Classic's guys. And every time I leave these threads, I come out thinking...It'd be great if all the forums were this well written, and it's authors as well informed as here.

I'm not a very good writer but I've been told that I have nice legs, and I'd make a good cheerleader... [size=4] [/size]

[cardoustie]

My Dad is 74 this year and can't play any more due to a nasty degenerative spinal condition. He can barely walk nowadays

He's a Scot / Brit that left the UK and ran off to Australia with my mom (a Dane) to get married and start a career and a family

He didn't start until later in life and could never hit a wood, but loved hitting 60 yard rolling hooks with a 2 iron. Loves the outdoors and the needling

My favorite rounds were up in cottage country with him and my twin brother and brother in law. We couldn't stop laughing for 4 straight hours

He's a Jack Nicklaus and Peter Thompson fan

My favorite Dad story was him losing the grip on his 3 iron and having it go into a swamp at Kiawah, he waded in and got it and his business associates called him swamp thing for about 2 yrs. He wasn't concerned about the gators at all

I think he made 2 birdies his whole life and usually shot 99-112

[Kadin 25]

Cheers to your Pops my friend!

[stixman]

[quote name='MrParr1Noid' timestamp='1362503931' post='6551835']
Every time I enter one of these threads, I come in wondering what's going with the Classic's guys. And every time I leave these threads, I come out thinking...It'd be great if all the forums were this well written, and it's authors as well informed as here.

I'm not a very good writer but I've been told that I have nice legs, and I'd make a good cheerleader...[size=4] [/size] [size=4] [/size]
[/quote]Thanks, we like to do golf properly, too.... (Plse send photo)

[profsmitty]

Mac, that picture is not something to begin or end the day looking at.

[guisician]

Thanks to profsmitty and all posters for sharing their thoughts and memories. My dad passed on his 90th birthday in 2008. He didn't play golf but we enjoyed watching it together and did so on Father's Day 2006 when Phil Mickelson lost the US Open on the 18th tee at Winged Foot. He had a stroke two days later and communication became difficult afterwards, but every US Open Father's Day Sunday brings back a lot of good memories.

[Blade Junkie]

My dad is 76 and is a non-golfer. Sailing was always his thing. I could have had lessons and encouragement galore if I'd been interested in that, but golf was my thing, and he didn't like golf, so I was on my own. When I started getting reasonable at it and hit single figures, he came along for the walk for 9 holes ... one time only ... I was 16.

Thirty years later, I have got into hickory golf, and he's made me some nice bag sticks to rest my hickory bag on ... these will be with me for the rest of my golfing life, long after he is pushing up daisies. I love the idea of being able to walk round the course in years to come with something my dad made for me for my 46th birthday. I told him about that, and he was quite touched. He is not an emotional guy, so that was quite a special moment for me. I am going to ask him to engrave them with some sort of message, and then see if he will come out with me again for another 9 holes ...

Great idea for a thread profsmitty. Fred sums it up for me: "We always want to please Dad, don't we".

Here's to all the golfing and non-golfing dads past, present and future !

[Puckoon]

We always want to please Dad. Rarely a more true sentiment been spoken and for those unfortunates who for one reason or another will never feel that way, I feel for them.

My old man took me out golfing with him for the first time when I must have been 7 or 8. I had this Spalding (I believe) pencil bag with a 3w, a 5i,7i,9i and a putter. Anyways we were on our holidays in rural costal Ireland somewhere and there were electric fences around the greens to keep the cattle out. I was only a nipper and wasn't the height of two turf, so I approached the first green in the rain and the cow clap and tried to lever the electric wire downwards with my 9 iron so I could step over. I got the shock of my life and it scared the living bejaysus out of me!

My proudest moment will be next year flying him out for our member guest. He will never have seen the likes of it and the tee prize may well be the only thing he'll ever win. He deserves every bit of it.

Cheers to dads gone before their time and those still with us.

Great thread.

[freddiec]

Great responses, all. Really enjoyed this.

[Ironmaster Oddities]

[quote name='_MS22_' timestamp='1362498448' post='6551327']
Great thread. Makes me think that the trip I have planned in 2 months for my Dad's 60th is all the more money well spent. Flying us out to NorCal to play Pebble (and Spyglass, Spanish, Blackhorse, Pasa, and MPCC) as he never got the chance yet in 35 years of playing. I'm draining what I saved since my wedding last year but I'd love to do it while we can still enjoy it.
[/quote]
No matter what it costs, it will be a bargain.

[rex235]

My Dad left this world 12 years ago-
He would have just turned 100 in December, but his favorite golfer was Julius Boros, edging out "Champagne Tony" Lema-

We were lucky enough to have taken some great photos.

[lobstah]

I don't think my Dad ever picked up a club in his life, but we would watch golf on TV during those long Maine winters back in the 60's. We barely lived above the poverty line in those days, and for that reason I think Arnie's "Common Man" persona appealed to him. I was exposed to the game through a summer job as a caddie at the local club. His WWII injuries finally did him in while I was still a teen, and even though he was uncomfortable around the country club crowd, he encouraged me to work on my game like my life depended on it.

[XYB34A]

My Dad is the reason that I play golf. My Dad is a Southern Baptist Minister and will have been a licensed and ordained pastor of several churches for 60 years this fall. He will be 76 in less than a month. I must admit, that I am, was, and have been a typical Preacher's son. I have done it all, with a couple of marriages and a lot of party time. Every preacher, pastor, priest uses illustrations to the people in the congregation, to help convey his message that morning. My dad used many, many golf illustrations to convey his message. Most of them making fun of what he calls, "cow pasture pool". Being the rebellious son that, I was. Golf somehow drew me. We have a 9 hole par 3 in Campbellsville, Ky that is free to play. It is maintained by the city, and while the greens are a little rough, its fun to play. I used to take my son's there when there were in grade school. My dad does like to watch tiger woods on tv, or he did until tiger had his marital troubles and let the GD word slip on national tv a couple of times. That didn't sit to well with him. So even though my dad has never even been on a golf course, seen me, or any of my sons play golf. I still have to thank him for kinda drawing me to the game. Plus the many fishing trips, "bird hunting", deer hunting and turkey hunting trips that I have had with him in my life time. People generally think that men that Preach the word of God, have a easy lazy job. What they don't realize, is these men carry the burden of all the people in their church, and their physical, mental and spiritual problems. My father, and my mother have carried the burden for 54 years together of the 8 churches that my father has been pastor of in my life time. I have many memories of phone calls to my house at 3AM because of a death, a suicide, a heart attack or a stroke of some church member or a member of a church members family. Being a preacher's son or daughter is not easy growing up. You are ridiculed by your peers for a lot of reasons, and now I believe that your actions as a son or daughter, are to be accepted as normal by your peers. So golf for me is great, and most every time I do remember my humble beginnings' in life, I know that golf and my Dad will always have a place in my life.