I guess you’ve been wondering why you haven’t heard from us in a couple years at this joyous time of year.  Well suffice it to say the internet has arrived in all corners of the globe!  I’m afraid to say I am unable to give you my exact location due to a less than friendly government but it’s looking good for a full exoneration and pardon…Hallelujah indeed!

And now on to a  little update on The Halls.

Audrey had a peculiar year to say the least  tending bar in a small taberna along the Mexican border.  The way she tells it is both funny and exciting, a cross of Ian Fleming meets Rachel Ray.  You see while I have been “away” she of course has had a few things around the house needing repair.  Although mail is erratic in my current digs I do get copies of some rather large invoices from handymen.

One in particular, I was to find out months later, led to her interesting time south of the border.  I wasn’t even aware we had a fireplace but apparently it was crumbling and needed immediate repair.  Audrey, conscientious homeowner that she is, called a repairman right away.   It seems he ended up staying a few day while he finished his work and fell in love with Audrey’s famous Margaritas.

It turns out this gentleman, Juan I think, is also a partner in Las Chicas Blancas, a small family owned establishment along the Rio Grande and was in desperate need of a bartender.  Well Audrey just doesn’t know how to say no to a person in need so off she went…what a sweet and considerate wife I have…love ya hun.

Since both Mom and Dad were elsewhere most of the year the boys dealt with their “Home Alone” odyssey with typical responsibility and trustworthiness.  Granted they had to sell off most of our things including  the boat and cars to keep themselves in peanut butter but I thought it showed real substance of character to save the furniture for firewood.  There’s always time to finish High School after all.   Granted it’s a little barren around the old ranch but we’ll make due.

We are just so thankful to be together this Christmas another banner  year and hope this finds your family as happy and healthy as ours.

Merry Christmas!

Well she of course was right about this and everything else she used to say including what a good son I was.

I’ve devoted this space to Mom before and between us friends when I need a good cry I go back and read it.  It may sound arrogant to tell you I bring myself to tears once a year but really it’s more sincere than false, and I love it every time.

But that was then and this is now.  I want to tell you about my good wife and the Mother she has turned out to be.  You can tell by the photo above that at 23 she  was (and is)  a stunner.  A head turning beauty with more charm than sense.  When her Dad, the Rev. Dr. Claiborne Bell, ushered me into his office to ask for her hand, he was as kind as he was concerned.  For that I am forever grateful.

A Catholic boy with questionable prospects was going to take his light away…he was a learned man but more than that he was a man of faith…faith in young people and real or imagined, faith in me.

A few years later we had welcomed two boys into our world and family and ever since Audrey has been devoted to them in every beautiful sense of the word.  As little boys I was a Friday- Sunday Dad.  Off to here or there to make a living and a career…calling home at bath time from a 5-star resort in Scottsdale, Sea Island, or Hawaii…it’s what we did.

She on the other hand gave up her life for them.  She was there for the first smile, walk, words, and post-diaper moment.  Audrey left CNN on all day just to hear adults’ voices…tough stuff at times for someone with a wonderful way with people and a very good education…but it’s what we did.

What was the return?

Two exceptionally grounded kids with many accomplishments behind them and countless ones ahead. Every hour you spent at home will continue to pay dividends.

I want to say publically honey that it was you and all you…and it was worth it.

Happy Mother’s Day, you’re The Best In Golf.

Love,

Your “Boys”

It was a  6-iron on the par- 3 fifth at Cassique on Kiawah Island, SC.  What makes it cool is, depending on the previous hole,  you either play a ball busting uphill par 3 or a downhill easy one shotter where most of the holes-in-one in the county are made.

Ours today was the more difficult of the two.  My shot wasn’t close…Mark E. Mark hit it a lot closer and made birdie…but my shot was as good as I’ve hit it in months.  The road is long but I think I can make it.

If you read my previous post on how, after a lifelong love affair with the ancient game, I found myself shooting 90 and caring zero.    It’s not that I stopped liking golf…no it was much worse than that,  I couldn’t care less.

Fast forward a few days and I’m on my way to the PGA Show in Orlando.  I’m just about to Jacksonville when the phone rings.

“Ricky, It’s your Pro.”  Not it’s Mike, but “Your Pro.”

Proey, what’s shakin?”

“What’s shakin’ is I read your BLOG and I need to see you”

“Love to see you Pro, what’s up?”

“If you’ve lost it for golf then that’s my business…I am your Golf Doctor and I want to see you, dig?”

So here it was.  Mike Harmon, the Old Pro, loved by every member at Secession, at least the ones that matter, called me to tell me he was taking my malaise for the dimpled grape to heart…it was “his business”.  Whoa.  The montage that had become my game meant more to him than it did to me…what in the world can you say about that?

He asked me how much of my recent downturn in enthusiasm had to do with how I was playing.  Fair question, it’s probably about 50%.  His prescription (it wasn’t advice) was to swing a weighted club 30 times a day in a specific manner.  He would show me when I saw him…fair enough.

I’m walking the golfer’s candy store trail which is the PGA Show an hour before my Doctor’s appointment when by karma I find myself squarely in the middle of the training aids section of the floor.  I look and look, talk and talk, and am convinced that I have found the gold standard in weighted clubs…of course you have heard of it, most of you own at least one I’m sure, yes… The Orange Whip.

Scared to purchase the Masters of all training clubs before I see my Pro, I take the brochure, supremely confident that Mike will give the all green to purchase.

The appointment came and my excitement waned as my Pro told me to throw away the brochure I had brought on the Orange Whip…he wasn’t interested.

“How many old sand wedges do you have?”  Only about 20 says I.

“Take one and saw it off.  Put it against another and duct tape them together…that’s your weighted club.”

That’s not Old School, that’s just School.

So we set aside a few minutes out of  our busy days and got together.

He cares about my golf game…how cool is that?

I wish I had something to teach him because he showed me something that day.

Heard from O.O.T.G. (One of the Greats) today…the original…The Wizard of Wilshire.   He was filling me in on this great new company and website getting off the ground out there in the land of whey shakes and sprout burgers…Trendy Golf.

Well if The Wiz gives it one of his boney little thumbs up, that’s good enough for me…check it out.

In fact with his quicker than my backswing wit you could say Twitter was invented for him.

Here’s a sample:

• History lesson: Walter Hagen won four British Opens, but he never won a major Bobby Jones played in
• If you’ve never been to Scotland: Turnberry & Troon, west coast; St. Andrews & Carnoustie, east coast. England down here; Ireland over there
• In my experience at the Open, the best order of fish-and-chips is when the fish tastes like chips and the chips taste like fish
• When there’s a lull in British Open action you can keep the mind alert by counting the toenails in your pork pie
• Is it harder to hit an iron out of heather or swallow a mouthful of haggis? My vote goes to the haggis
• In earlier days the only thing thicker than heather at a British Open was the nose hair on an R&A official

He’s the original…check it out.

I’m not in the habit of posting links on B.I.G. but this is something special.  Jim Nantz and Jaime Diaz on the Charlie Rose Show talking about golf, The Open, and Dads. 

It takes a little time to navigate and at times it’s a little pedestrian for golf insiders, but the last two segments are magic and worth your attention.

But the one I like is the one you get to play a few minutes earlier…number 15.  Cypress was built back in the day when if the land gave you two short holes in a row, that’s what you bulit.  No need for enough space between tee and green for a cathedral with a pool screen.

It’s 90 yards shorter than the next and a whole lot easier because of it…and a lot more fun…it’s a beauty and a Best In Golf.

It’s going to start with what looks like a windy rainy day on The Ocean Course…perfect.  You have to catch a rare day to play this golf course without some weather.  I’ve been there in sun, clouds, wind, and rain…and that was the front nine.

Full report next post.