Balance

Can a fourty-year-old family guy improve his game enough to become a scratch golfer and keep his career and family life flourishing?
That sentence isn't about me, but parts of it are true for many.
'Back Nine', a newly released documentary out on DVD, tells the tale of Jon Fitzgerald, a husband and father who decided to see just how good he could become at the game of golf.
Fitz lives in California and has golfed most of his life. With camera crews following him around, he enlists the help of various coaches, including a life coach, to see how far he can take his game.
I won't go too much further into detail and ruin what is a great doc, but let's just say Fitz improves in leaps and bounds.
The toughest part of it all for Fitz is finding balance between work, family and, of course, getting out and swinging the clubs.
It's probably something every golfer deals with because golf, more than any sport I can think of (well, maybe cricket but who plays that outside of Brits, Aussies and the like?), takes a lot of time.
It's something I have given some thought to as I set out this spring, summer and fall to dedicate more time to the sport.
By the time I swing that first club, Alisha and I will be married (the Big Day is the day after Prince William's nuptuals).
We both have work, a house to pay for and look after, and various sports and volunteer stuff to keep us busy. I play a lot of soccer in the summer, so golf has to fit in between that. We like to travel to see friends and hit the cottage on Lake Huron. We are big on family.
There is always something going on it seems, and somewhere to be.
Fitz had his time table worked out to a tee, mainly because he had to.
A single guy can call in a tee-time and stay for drinks afterwards without worrying about what is happening on the home front.
And do it all over again the next day if his schedule permits.
Fitz wasn't going to let family life suffer and his daughter grow up with a dad that is always off on some golf course.
Fitz was surprised by his steady improvement in a limited window of time but focus really was the key. Each lesson, from each coach and mentor, was taken to heart.
That is something I hope to duplicate.
Each time a friend offers a spark of advice, I will pack that away and use it when the situation calls for it. In my very limited golfing life, which is about four or five rounds a summer at best, I have learned a few things along the way that have helped.
Usually by the end of the round, I felt better about the way I hit the ball and wondered how my score would improve if I went another 18 the next day. Never happened.
This summer, I hope to learn something new each time out. I know full well the frustrations that are coming, but, as a smart fellow in 'Back Nine' pointed out, you need to focus on each shot, not the number of strokes or the end result. It's the same for all sport, and in everything really.
I have no idea how much I will get out on the links in 2011 but once-a-week is a realistic and achievable goal. There may be some weeks when I can golf more and others where it just won't be in the cards.
Driving ranges, practice swings in the basement and reading some good golf books can fill the gap.
Finding time to play and enjoy a round is easy, maintaining life balance, as Fitz can attest to, is the hard part.

Muni Golf: The Heart of the Game

After three years at J-school, I was looking forward to living at home for the summer and pondering the next big step in my life.
I had an interview for a PR-type job at the local conservation authority and my dad, Colin, and I planned to get memberships at the municipal golf course in St. Thomas. We hoped to golf a lot that summer.
A few things happened in the spring of '98 that changed the course of my life. I was offered a job at a weekly paper that was just starting up in Blenheim. The pay was low and hours long, the owner told me, but I knew it was a starting point to my career. I would be foolish not to take it.
It meant moving again (my last semester before graduation was a co-op at the St. Thomas Times Journal, so I lived at home) and it meant I couldn't spend the summer - potentially - working at the local conservation authority and golfing with my dad.
Looking back, it was the right move to make, career wise.
A few months in Blenheim led to my sports writing gig in St. Thomas.
The T-J's former managing editor, Ross Porter, called me in Blenheim one day. There was an opening in sports and the pay was much better, so I sat down with Ross to discuss the job. I was working 60-hour weeks and living in a tiny apartment above the paper's office, a print shop owned by my former boss. I was thrilled for the offer.
In three weeks, the sports desk in St. T was mine.
If working full-time as a sports reporter seems like a dream job, well, it is and it isn't.
It afforded me the opportunity to meet some cool people.
In addition to PGA caddy Brennan Little, who I mentioned in an earlier post, I got to interview dozens of interesting people. One of them was hockey legend Bobby Orr.
I met Orr at the Joe Thornton and Friends game, an annual fundraiser hosted by the St. Thomas minor hockey product. Joe was just starting out in the NHL back then with the Boston Bruins but each year he was improving in leaps and bounds. The current San Jose Shark and NHL star was a dream interview and always, always, happy and thankful (much like Brennan) that I took the time to chat with him.
I met a lot of athletes over the years and still do who are so into themselves it makes you want to punch them in the head.
Joe was level-headed and down to earth.
He has a good family who put their heart and soul into supporting him. I went to school with his brothers, John and Alex.
Joe took a lot of heat during his first years in Beantown. There was an article in Sport Illustrated that described Joe as many knew him, laid back and fun loving. The magazine compared him to Jeff Spicoli, the curly-haired stoner from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I love SI, but felt they missed the point. Joe's numbers jumped every year and he left Boston for the left coast. Thornton has won the Hart trophy and Olympic gold with Canada. Early doubters have been proven wrong many times over.
The downside to sportswriting? Long hours and working evenings and weekends. You miss a lot of social stuff, but that's the job.
In my four years at the T-J I got to cover some golf.
By far the biggest story during my tenure involved the municipal golf course. The course was downtown and bordered an old factory that has since closed down. The nine-hole layout was lined with sturdy old trees and while it wasn't a gem, it was the starting point for hundreds of players to learn the game.
If you drive by that location today, there is no century-old golf course. The owners sold the land (they planned to open an another course soon after, they told me in an interview) and Wal-Mart moved in.
The busiest part of downtown St. Thomas, near The Beer Store, five-pin bowling alley and near the main intersection to fast food alley, got a whole lot busier when the U.S.-based mega store set up shop.
The magnet effect soon kicked in.
Canadian Tire and Zehrs left their locations to be close to the action. A gas station, restaurant, and other shops joined the party.
In Stratford, that type of land transaction would have people chaining themselves to the trees at the golf course. Wal-Mart is trying to move in to Stratford, but the city insists it set up on the west end, which is underdeveloped. The Ontario Municipal Board has backed up that idea, after Wal Mart tried to locate in an already busy area in the city's east end.
Makes you wonder. Maybe it's just me, but I thought city leaders in St. Thomas should have done everything they could to stop that from happening. It was private land so maybe the council's hands were tied.
My dad and I never got to live out our golfing plan, but generations of fathers and sons bonded on that course.
Not to mention the thousands of others who had a great time.
Now, when I drive by, I see commerce and traffic headaches.
All those trees, that grass, those memories gone forever.
Such a shame.

Staying humble

Woke up early this morning on my day off and started dreaming of a quick four-day holiday to Kapalua. The professionals are back at it bright and early into the new year as the PGA season gets underway in Hawaii.
When I was a sports reporter in St. Thomas, Ontario, I followed the tour as intently as I probably ever have. Around that time, a local St. Thomas guy, Brennan Little, started carrying the sticks for a promising up and comer from a small town near Sarnia. Brennan and I went to the same high school (Central Elgin Collegiate in St. Thomas) but I never met him at CECI because of our age gap. Around the time he was caddying, Brennan's dad volunteered a stint as the president of the St. Thomas Golf and Country Club and he was a pretty prominent lawyer. I rounded up some contact information for Brennan and called his cell phone (that was before the cell phone boom).
Now, as a journalist, you are never quite sure what to expect when you make that first call. Sports types tend to be approachable and chatty because you are shooting the breeze about sports.
Easy conversation.
It was harder on the general news side of things.
Calling someone who has just lost a loved one in a car accident, for example, is one of those required evils in the world of media and no journalist ever looks forward to it. I always approached it like this: the community should have a last look at this person in a positive light. What did such and such a person like to do? Did he give back to his community? Was he a big family guy?
At the conclusion of the conversation, the person usually felt better as they remembered the good times and readers were informed of the person's loves in life, not the 'just-the-facts-mam' details compiled for a police press release.
The situation was all-good with Brennan. Before I called him, I did some research on the man who was making a good go of it on the PGA Tour. Mike Weir is a household name to golf fans everywhere nowadays. Back then, after some early struggles, Weir was slowly proving he could hang in there with the best. Brennan was a great interview. It probably helped that I was a St. Thomas guy and we could chat about what was happening back home, as Brennan was on the road a lot. He didn't get too much into detail about the caddying. Up early, scout the course, a lot of prep work, that type of thing. Totally understandable, given his working relationship with Mike.
What struck me most was he was so approachable. I called many times and he was always appreciative that I called. "Thanks, anything I can do, let me know". One of those people you love as a journalist, but also as a friend.
I think I could sum up Brennan's outlook on life best this way.
We met when he played on the Canadian Tour and I went to Forest City National in London with my notepad and camera to write a feature.
Brennan had a tough day on the course. But he was happy to talk afterwards and thanked me for the interview. His life soon would take a fantastic twist that afforded him the chance to see some of the world's great golf courses and meet some of its most recognizable stars. I got goose bumps when I watched Mike walk out to thunderous applause at that Toronto Maple Leafs game in his Green Jacket to drop the puck, after winning The Masters. Every Canadian, golf fan or not, was in awe of that performance.
Imagine what it was like for Brennan to be right there? Unreal.
You wouldn't know any of it got to him if you met Brennan. Without saying it, you knew he appreciated a life that many could only dream of.

The journey begins....soon as the snow goes away

Can't think of a better time to get the golf blog rolling than the dead of a good Canadian winter.
First, some background.
After J school, and a short stint at a weekly paper, I passionately worked for a couple of daily papers but that sort of career came to an abrupt end in June of twenty-10, when I was downsized at the age of 35
What a shocker.
Yep, it was, but I didn't sit around and mope about it. I have a great new job and a lovely woman who shares a decent house with me in the 'burbs.
Life is good.
Anyways, a dozen years in the biz' gave me plenty of experience - including four years as a sports reporter - to add a legitimate blog site to the many that exist out there.
So why golf you may ask?
Well, for years I have procrastinated about learning the great game and playing it more often. Currently, I am among the three-or-four-times-a-summer-guys. You know them well - the groups you hate to be behind because they are hitting their used Wilsons all over the fairway (when they are not searching the woods).
Every summer I get out on the links and every time I tell myself I am going to golf more often. Every Saturday. Maybe twice a month. Then the summer turns to fall and I look back on how I spent the warm months and hitting that little white ball was not a part of it.
I have made a pact with myself to change that. One of my friends at work, Brian, is an avid golfer and we often chatted about the sport during the summer. "I golf every day, or try to" he told me once.
"That's what I do."
Brian eats, breathes and sleeps golf. He studied the sport in college and worked in the industry after graduation. We would often chat about how to connect the sport to some sort of awesome job.
Caddying for a pro, working for a big golf company. That sort of thing. Then I came up with this idea.
Why not marry learning to golf with a blog that incorporates great journalism? Over the course of the spring, summer and fall, I hope to hit as many golf courses as I can and golf with as many people as possible.
You see, if there is one thing I learned in all those years of daily deadlines, it is that everyone has a great story.  It doesn't matter if you are serving coffee at a local shop or in charge of a company with hundreds of employees. You have lived a life and experienced ups and downs along the way.
I hope to capture those stories and share them with the world. There will be a lot of laughs, struggles on the courses and lessons to be learned about the game and life itself. By summer's end, I hope to have a new appreciation of a game that has intrigued me for far too long.
And a host of new friends, of course. But it won't stop there. Golf is a life-long game. You never stop learning to play the game and this blog won't stop as long as I continue to hit the links.
"You never bond with anyone more than when you are golfing," Brian told me.
As soon as this snow goes away, I will be out there. In the meantime, I plan to chat up anyone with any sort of golf knowledge. Maybe read some books, watch some golf on the television, and, hopefully, pencil in some tee-times for the great adventure that awaits.