I'd like to thank everyone who voted and commented on "I'll Carry Your Bag." I did not intend to make this a multiple part story, because I wasn't sure how it would be received. People either love the game of golf or they hate it, as evidenced by one comment.
This is dedicated to those who requested I continue Raquel and Sean's adventures.
I've been in love with the game since I was 15. Not just playing golf, but also studying it's rich history. A history filled with incredible players, caddies and fascinating golf courses. The combination of which has produced amazing moments in time. The circumstances resulting in the collision between humans and nature... often bringing out the best in both.
Legendary tournaments, like Jack Nicklaus' 1986 Masters win at Augusta National for his record sixth green jacket, with his son, Jackie, carrying his bag.
Or the 2015 Lotte Championship, when Sei Young Kim defeated Inbee Park on the first sudden death playoff hole by holing her second shot from 154 yards out. The shot was over a lake, took two bounces and slam dunked into the hole for the eagle. Utterly amazing.
How about Jin Young Ko's 2021-2022 66 consecutive greens in regulation. Not impressed? Tiger's biggest streak of consecutive GIRs was 29 in 2000. Jin Young more than lapped, arguably, the greatest player of all time.
Golf has also blessed us with people like Arnold Palmer who meant more to millions, around the world... than just hitting a little white ball.
My favorite moment in time is Ben Hogan's incredible one iron shot on the 72nd hole at the 1950 US Open, played at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, PA. As with most great stories, it's about much...much more than just one golf shot. This story started over a year earlier with an almost catastrophic outcome. On February 2, 1949, outside of Van Horn, Texas, Mr. Hogan and his wife, Valerie, were involved in a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus who was passing an 18-wheeler during a heavy fog. At the very last moment, Ben threw himself in front of Valerie saving her life and as it turned out... his own. Mrs. Hogan, incredibly, only sustained minor injuries. Mr. Hogan wasn't as fortunate. He suffered significant injuries to include damage to his left eye, a broken pelvis, left ankle and collarbone.
The doctors told Ben he would be lucky to ever walk again. More tragically, they said his days of playing golf were over.
One problem... the doctors didn't know Ben Hogan.
Back in 1950, the final two rounds (36 holes), of the US Open, were played on the same day. Mr. Hogan was in constant pain the entire tournament and could barely walk near the end of his final round. The pain had become so great, he almost quit on the 13th hole of his second 18, on the final day. The fact that he stood on the tee box of the 72nd hole, needing a par to force a playoff, was a miracle in itself. However, I like to think it was completely "in character" with the way Ben Hogan lived his life. A life filled with overcoming unimaginable pain and adversity.
The 18th at Merion, in 1950, was a 458 yard par four. In those days it was considered a very long par four. The hole started off with a blind tee shot over a rock quarry. Hogan hit his drive right down the middle of the fairway. The second shot was to a green with a false front and roll-off on the back. It has been described like a barrel laying on its side. For Hogan's second shot, he chose the hardest club in golf... the one iron. Lee Trevino once quipped that even the Almighty couldn't hit the one iron. But on this day, Hogan's one iron was struck pure on the face of the club and landed in the middle of the green. Hogan two putted for his par and an 18 hole playoff, the next day. By the time he held the trophy as the national champion, Ben Hogan had walked 90 holes of the most competitive golf.
... when the doctors said he would never again walk one.
I don't think there's another sports moment that demonstrates the absolute determination and shear will to do what many said was impossible.
But that's who Ben Hogan was.
I played my first round of golf in June of 1971... one month earlier, on May 13th, Ben Hogan walked and played his last competitive round, 21 years after the miracle at Merion.
Well, that's why I love the game so much.
I understand if you don't.
Please enjoy "I'll Carry Your Bag -- Part Two"
Sunday - Final Round
Those who don't play golf say, "What's so hard about it? The ball doesn't move, nobody's trying to take it from you, you don't have to run or skate after it... it just sits there patiently waiting for you to hit it." The ball dares you, yes even taunts you, to hit it where you aim. It presents a beautiful landscape as it's playing field; fairways that are as wide as football fields are long, greens as big as an entire hockey rink.
Expounding upon Mark Twain's quote, "Golf is a good walk spoiled," golf has been described as a pleasant walk through a beautiful tree lined grassy landscape... fucked up by a little white ball.
Why? Because once the golf club is pulled back an eight of an inch, it becomes one of the hardest, most frustrating games in the world. But what causes it to be so "hard" is what occupies the space between the ears.
There are days when golf is "easy" and there are those when it's impossibly frustrating. Most of the time it's somewhere in between. The first lesson golf teaches is "humility." The secret to golf is finding a repetitive swing that works. Much easier said than done. Anyone can play golf, few can master it. The majority of all golfers can't break a 100. Finding the allusive "successfully repetitive swing" isn't easy. Many find it at "moments" and then "poof" it's gone.
Problems with the golf swing can either be easy to figure out and corrected, or a pain in the ass, like looking for a single code error in a computer program. Sometimes in order to "fix it" the golfer has to quit thinking about everything. Then there are those times where the golfer just has to "pound" practice balls until the problems get worked out.
Golf courses present their own special set of problems, separate from the golf swing. Some golf courses "fit the eye" better than others.
Raquel and Sean were having one of those weeks. Coming off a win is always hard. It's rare for a professional golfer to win two weeks in a row. It happens, but not often. It didn't happen for Raquel.
It wasn't that Raquel suddenly forgot how to play golf or even played badly. She just didn't play as well as she did the previous week. She knocked one into the water on the 10th hole during the second round. That led to a double bogey. It was the only double of the week, but one more double than the week before. In the third round, her second shot hit the flag stick on the seventh hole, propelling the ball back into the sand trap, resulting in a hard fought bogey, instead of being inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie. Putting was her strength and carried her to victory the week before. This week her putting was just a fraction off. She "lipped out" several short putts. More birdie putts fell...last week. It became frustrating to the point that her putting stroke was shorter and quicker, resulting in more missed putts.
Fact is she was never really in contention. The previous week, it seemed like all the shots landed where she aimed, all the putts dropped in the center of the cup and all the bounces went her way.
Last week she "saw the golf course."
This week... not so much.
The media suggested Raquel's new sponsorship with Sparta Apparel and the rumors of a romance with her famous caddy were distractions. The media often gets it wrong.
It just wasn't her week to win.
Sean helped her, every way possible. The more frustrated she became, the more supportive he was. At the end of the day, she probably would have played worse if it hadn't been for Sean.
