I usually go to church for the second service at 11:00 in the morning. On a Sunday morning, I don't want to be bothered getting to church early enough for the first service at nine o'clock. However, this week, I had to go to the early service. Leah, who stands as a greeter at the door I always use, noticed right away that I was not attending at my usual time. She had to ask what was up. I said, "I had to come to this service today because I volunteered for some golf thing in the afternoon."
"Do you mean the Memorial Golf Tournament?"
That would be the golf thing. The name slipped my mind. I don't do golf. I certainly don't watch it on television. I haven't even played putt-putt in decades. I'm fairly sure I've never been on a golf course. And, I know I'd never been to Muirfield Village. Muirfield is the dream of Jack Nicklaus. (I did know that name.) Nicklaus designed the 220 acre golf course / country club / community complex in the 1970s. The Memorial Tournament, named to commemorate the greats of the sport, began in 1976. Muirfield Village is the destination address for those people in Columbus who simply have more money than they know what to do with. Might I suggest sponsoring a muralman?
I called up my brother and said, "You'd never guess in a million years where I am." Of course, I was right. He couldn't possibly have come up with the correct answer. Nobody who knows me could. It's completely out of character for me to have anything to do with golf. However, it's not out of character for me to volunteer for a cause. One of my friends was in charge of gathering 60 volunteers from his Lions Club. And, knowing the right person is how I ended up at the 18th hole of the Memorial Golf Tournament.
It's okay to be mildly jealous of the experience. (My brother-in-law certainly is.) But, to add a little reality to the situation, I was on trash duty. I spent the afternoon of a beautifully, sunny day in Ohio gathering up bags of trash and stuffing them behind a hidden bar for someone else to take care of later in the day. Most of the drinking crowds were considerate with their trash. However, I still managed to get beer all over my arms as I moved around wet trash bags. I smelled like a drunk by the time I got home -- and I never drink the stuff!
Some of the thousands at the 18th who created a whole lot of trashMore reality for the situation. When you are on trash patrol, you really can't get a good place to watch anything at the 18th hole. If and when anything happened on the course, there were too many heads -- and even more raised I phones -- in the way to see much of anything. I didn't suffer though. There were no celebrity sightings on the course, except for the Goodyear blimp. I'd never heard of any of the golfers that day. Yes, I do know who Tiger Woods is. Even I would recognize him anywhere. He wasn't one of the 120 players participating in the tournament.
Much to my surprise, I was stopped several times by people as I hauled off the trash. They wanted to thank me for my community service. It was nice to be appreciated.
The leader throughout the day was Billy Horschel. He's a PGA professional that I'd never heard of before. He maintained his lead on the final day and went home a whole lot richer. How much do you get for winning a golf tournament in Columbus, Ohio? Well, if it is the proper tournament, it's a tidy $2.6 million dollars.
Nicklaus was there for the drama at the last hole, and he presented the trophy to Horschel. You would think that seeing the Golden Bear present the trophy to the 2022 Memorial champion would have been my highlight of the day.
Not even close.
Horschel is a young father with three young children. The oldest one looked perhaps seven-years-old. They were little, but they were still old enough to know that their daddy was in a tournament. And, there was no way to control their joy when he won. According to The Memorial Twitter account, one of them cried, "Daddy, did we win?" There was also a whole lot of joyful jumping up and down, when daddy replied, "Yes, we did."
A podium was hauled out to the middle of the 18th hole's putting green. That's where the presentation took place. As Nicklaus presented the trophy to Horschel, three little children just couldn't stay by their mother's side. They rushed up to be by their father. Then, there was a moment when nobody was sure if they should be there or if they should go back to their mother. Fortunately, sanity reigned at that moment and they circled their daddy for the photos.
There were probably a lot of young fathers in the competition in Columbus this week. I really don't know. After all, I didn't even know the names of the participants. But, one very proud papa took a trophy home to the delight of three children. Hershel might have won the trophy but his kids won my heart. As far as I'm concerned, the best man -- and daddy -- won.
