I must say I am pleasantly surprised this year how many of you are wearing poppies, it seems to be more than usual, although of course it's never enough..
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day and I will be meeting with my two sisters for a nice lunch, no doubt a couple of toasts to all those who fought for or gave their lives for us, including our Dad who we lost recently approaching his 97th birthday.
Those of you who have listened to or read me over the last 25 years know how much this day means to me as my grandfather Tom lost his leg in WW1, and my father Bill fought and survived the Battle of Britain with the RAF, ending the war with Monty in the North African desert fighting and defeating Rommel, the Desert Fox.
Terry Lenyk, my pal at Golf Canada has written a nice piece on some of Canada's golf luminaries who fought for us during both wars and I have included a link to it here http://golfcanada.ca/article/remembering-fallen-golf-heroes
I'd like to share a couple of stories about golf and my Grandad and Dad.
Grandad Tom lived in a cottage adjacent to Craigie Hill GC in Perth, Scotland given to him by the local laird for a shilling a month, when he returned without his leg from WW1.
It's where I fell in love with the game. I'd arrive every other year from Canada for the bi-annual summer holiday to visit my relatives. When we got to Perth, grandad who was the ice maker for curling at the local rink, had his pals in the greens keeping crew at Craigie Hill cut his little back yard and put in 4 of the course's white cups so I'd have my own putting green. It may as well have been the 18th at St Andrews !
He'd sit tapping his wooden leg with his pipe, the border collies running happily in and out the yard while yours truly spent hours and hours trying to navigate the 4 holes in 4 shots for the Open Championship !!... When I wasn't putting with the hickory shafted flat stick I still have to this day, I was roaming the rough at Craigie Hill GC looking for lost golf balls, and occasionally selling a couple for a bob or two, in all kinds of weather, high up on the hills overlooking Perth and the river Tay.
I still have to be dragged out of the rough by my playing partners as I dally too long searching for lost balls !!
My Dad gave me the best golf lesson, and the only one I have ever had. When I was 16 we would go to Parkview GC on Markham Road and Steeles in Scarborough and play the twilight ticket, $2.00 after 5pm on a Sunday evening, including a pull cart.
We went to church on Sunday mornings, he would merely remove his tie and jacket for our round, and play in his shiny black Sunday shoes. That taught me respect about how to dress appropriately for golf, but that wasn't the lesson.
We were out at the back of the course, as far away from the clubhouse as you can get and I was having a poor round, especially off the tee.
I had the honour, took my swing and heeled the ball into the bushes to the left of the tee. I just had long enough to see it disappear when that awful flood of temper I think all golfers have had to learn to control, rushed to my head and I furiously spun and hurled the offending driver. It helicoptered over Dad's head and clattered into a big Oak tree.
Dad had been waiting to hit. Instead he walked back to his pull cart, put the cover on his driver, the ball back in the bag, and started the long walk back to the clubhouse.
I pled with him to let me hit again, surely I could still salvage a par. He said " you are ruining my perfectly beautiful Sunday evening, not to mention my round, and I have to get up at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning to go to work, so I don't need this"
As we walked all the way in he talked to me about all the things I have been guided by on the golf course, and in life until today.
Enjoy the good shots both you and your partners make, get over the bad ones because there will be many more, enjoy the walk, the scenery, the smell of cut grass and your partners company because you'll be stuck at work the rest of the week, respect and obey the rules of the game, they are more important than your score, and respect those playing with and around you. Have fun, for goodness sake have fun.
What a lesson, thanks Grandad, thanks Dad..
I'm remembering ....
Bryan Angus
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