John H. Perry
Blog: January/February 2014
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Happy New Year to all and I wish everyone high hopes and low scores, as you embark on your 2014 golfing season.
I decided to start this year off “reflecting” on some of my most treasured memories, instead of taking the conventional, and typical approach, like making resolutions that I either don’t stick to or fall short of. My most treasured memories in golf have taken me on a wonderful, inspirational, and educational journey. From being a former caddy straight out of the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to places well beyond my wildest dreams. This game called golf has guided me like the North Star.
Just for starters, I’ve attended several Masters golf tournaments in Augusta, Ga.and even played the famous Augusta National Golf Course. That was all due to the accommodations of “my favorite nephew” Harden Perry III, my brother’s first born son. He was also Augusta’s first “manager of color” in their storied history. Harden was in charge of their Hospitality and House Keeping Dept. I’ve even had the pleasure of touring the Eisenhower Cabin, Butler Cabin, Crow’s Nest, Players Locker Room and Augusta Club House from inside the ropes, so to speak.
Harden earned a B.A. degree in Hotel Management and attended a Job Fair in Atlanta, where he also went to college. Augusta National representatives were at the Job Fair looking to fill an open position at their club that involved running their Hospitality Suite, etc. To make a long story short, Harden was looking to, hopefully, get a job offer with the Ritz Carlton Hotel chain. But fate had something else in mind—talk about being in the right place at the right time….
Harden did an interview with Augusta’s people and the rest was history. This was in the early 1990’s.
I was also at Augusta in 1995 when Tiger Woods made his debut as an amateur. I was there in 1997 when he won the Masters with a record breaking performance. I was also there that very next year when Tiger’s good friend Mark O’Meara won. I was standing right behind the 18th green when he drained his 20 foot putt to win his first and only Green Jacket. I was even present the year after that, when Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal won.
After seven or eight years at Augusta, my nephew landed another jewel of a job at TPC Sawgrass in Pointe Vedro Beach, Fl. This time, as Manager at the Marriott Hotel & Resort adjacent to the famed Stadium Course and Valley Course. He also accommodated his good ole’ uncle John to a round on the Stadium Course, where I shot 86 to par the knee knocking 17th island hole. After several years at Sawgrass, he ventured to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to an upscale Golf & Ski Resort, where he worked for a couple of years. However, “Uncle John” never visited him there, just for the record.
Could you blame me? Even though I live in the Northeast, me and cold weather don’t mix well. At least he and his lovely wife Phylicia had enough sense to keep their house in Jacksonville, Fl. In case this adventure in Wisconsin was round trip. As it turned out, a couple of years later, he landed a nice position at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fl., where he is currently employed. Harden and Phylicia have three lovely daughters who enjoyed the snow in Lake Geneva, but also welcomed back the glowing warmth and sun of Northern Florida.
My lovely wife, Gail, of 38 years, and I visited the World Golf Village many years ago and stayed at the very same Renaissance Hotel that my nephew still manages at today. She even bought me my very own “Brick”, which they customarily installed in the ground permanently along their famous Golf Walk Of Fame. It has my name on it. I’ve occasionally asked my nephew to go out and dust it off when he doesn’t have anything else better to do.
Some of my other favorite memories were of playing Capo Real in Los Cobos, Mexico, Port Royal in Bermuda, and the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
My golfing adventures have been a marvel! I’ve had the pleasure of dinning at a Pebble Beach and TPC Scottsdale, visited Doral in Miami, Olympic in San Francisco, attended U. S. Opens at Bethpage Black in Long Island, NY; PGA’s at Baltusrol in Springfield, NJ., which happens to be ten minutes from my house in Vauxhall, NJ; Ridgefield and Plainfield Country Clubs in Jersey, along with Liberty National in Jersey City.
I was privileged enough to be at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah in Chicago, IL; 2013 U.S. Open at Merion in Philadelphia, PA. I’ve played this wonderful game of golf in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and Canada. Took my clubs to Caracas, Venezuela, but could not play for lack of a public golf course (I wasn’t fortunate enough to play the private Caracas Country Club). This took place quite some years ago.
You win some, you lose some. All and all it’s been a great run and I look forward to 2014 and beyond with great anticipation and expectation. One thing I know for sure is going to happen, and that is, that, me and that little white ball are gonna agree, and disagree, all year long.
May the “Golfing Gods” bless you in 2014 and beyond.
Until next month,
John H. Perry
Email: johnpgolf@icloud.com
John Perry is a freelance writer, poet and active golfer with a passion for calling shots like he sees them and, then, telling it like it is. He resides in Vauxhall, NJ.
