Thomas is a fan of all sports, but nothing thrills his soul like golf! He plays any chance he can get! After several months of playing with his dad, friends, and brother, he heard about the Starburst golf tournament in June. He begged us for months to register for it, and we decided that it was time for him to play in his first competitive game/tourney. We were hesitant because it was being played out of town for several of the days, but it is hard to say no to Thomas, who hardly asks for anything. Boy did we pick a doozy! The Starburst tournament is the most well known junior golf tournament in the country. Kids from all over the place came to play. Thomas was hoping that his brother would caddy for him, but when we realized how serious this tournament really was, we decided that one of his parents should be there to caddy. Bryon, God love him, has one of the most inflexible jobs in the world. He was in the middle of a big custody trial and couldn't really ask the judge to postpone so he could watch his son play golf, but he was able to be there for the first part of the first day.
That left me as the only caddying option.
Poor, poor Thomas.
My extent of golf knowledge consists of what I observe when I've got my feet up watching the boys hit from the golf cart. I really didn't know the rules or the difference between a wood and an iron before the tournament. The kids and parents each day looked like they stepped out of a Titleist commercial. The second day of the tournament, I overheard a mom tell another mom that her hotel was so close to the course that she could hit it with a driver and nine iron. What?? I definitely felt like the end of the Hoosiers movie....very out of my league!
Fortunately, we were in a group with the sweetest boy from Louisiana who became fast friends with Thomas. They are still texting each other! Thomas (and I) learned so much in those few days and I really enjoyed it just being the two of us. We had lots of time to talk, which is not the norm in our house with very talkative outgoing siblings! Thomas' game improved every day and he wound up in the bottom 4th of the contestants, but not last place! Ha!
My only huge goof up was when Thomas asked me to give him his 9 iron and hit a horrible shot into the trees. He looked at me with huge puppy dog eyes and said, "You gave me a 6 iron, not a 9 iron!"Whoops! I really feel like I am a golf expert now (ha!) and have even been spotted watching it on TV for the first time in my life! We'll be ready to kill it next year, Starburst!
