I Owe A Lot To The Game Of Golf

There are FIVE crazy dudes in this picture and golf is just an excuse to get together! We are not easily fooled by the beauty of golf courses throughout the great state of Georgia. We view the landscape and see triple bogies masquerading as landscaping ... you can't fool us. Anyway, we don't need to be fooled. We have all long ago realized that we would not make a living playing golf. Left to right please let me introduce Dennis Parks, Bob Stanton, yours truly, Charley Shields and Joe Cole.

We met through the great game of golf. Years back I started the "Annual Chicken George Invitational Golf Tournament and Gnat Festival"! This was in my home town of Reynolds, Georgia and took place at the Reynolds Kiwanis Golf Course. It was only a 9 hole course and we had two eighteen hole shotgun starts each day of the special week-end. We usually would play about 150 players from around the country ... friends, friends of friends, fraternity brothers, etc.! I actually had this event for 14 consecutive years. The local townspeople would open their homes to the golfers for the week-end and the local Kiwanis Club would provide a BBQ Chicken dinner for a nominal fee. The town's restaurants looked forward to this yearly money-making time. It was truly a unique event, but as the local people starting getting older and less able to take care of visitors and as the grim reaper began to pass through town each year, I finally realized that the tournament had run its course. It was time to grab hold to all the memories and move on to the next thing. So goes life! But, this group came to know each other through the Chicken George Golf Tournament. Dennis and I were fraternity brothers at UGA and Joe Cole married a young lady with whom I had the pleasure of sharing my childhood. Joe asked me to invite his friend Bob Stanton and Bob asked me to invite his friend Charley Shields ... so I did! This took place over several years and there are many others that I came to know through this same process. I didn't realize it at the time, but golf was just the vehicle that brought all these people together so that life could happen.

It is always such fun when some of the participants from past Chicken George's get together. We know we aren't going to win the tournament but we also know that nobody will have more fun than us. Such was the case this day! It was non-stop laughter from the time we drove up to the club house. My cheek muscles ( in my face not my butt) still ache from laughing so much.



Maybe you're wondering why there are 5. You see, Bob Stanton (The Appliance Man) set up this gathering several months ago. He had a friend in a local high school booster club who needed support so Bob volunteered us. As luck would have it, about 3 weeks before the golf date, Bob suffered a heart attack and had by-pass surgery. He didn't want to miss the fun so he showed up anyway and walked around with us.

When it was all over, Charley invited us all back to his home in downtown Norcross for a Cinco de Mayo celebration dinner. Needless to say, his wife was surprised!

Just another great memory of a great day with a group of great guys. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

The older I get, the more amazed I am of the positives that the game of golf has added to my life. When I was a child, I cherished the times on Thursday afternoons when I got to play golf with my Daddy. As I grow older, I now cherish the times I got to spend 5 or 6 hours with my son on a golf course near our home in Kennesaw. Where else can a father and son spend 5 or 6 hours together? Certainly not cutting grass!

No doubt, I owe a lot to the game of golf! It's not just a game! Not to me!