Buddy Trips

My wife, Ruth, and I were staying in Cathedral City, California (next to Palm Springs) for two months – January and February in 2012. We had rented a condo that sits on the 14th hole of Cathedral Canyon Country Club. One day, Ruth, my daughter in law, Kate, son, Mike, and I played golf at the club. It was twilight so Ruth and Kate dropped out after playing the front nine. Mike and I decided to play as many holes as light would allow.

I had been playing well all day. I was four over as we began to play the 13th hole. (This has nothing to do with the story but I thought you might like to know that I was playing well and everything went to hell on the 13th.) The hole has water on the left, right, and in front of the green. I hooked my tee shot into the water,  pushed my second drive to the right, hit a tree and bounced back to within a foot of a second water ball. I couldn’t carry the water in front of the green, so I laid up. I hit my approach shot into the water, dropped another ball and hit this one in as well. This ball carried the water, but hit the bank and rolled back in.

Mike and I drove up to the bank and saw five balls lying in the water.  They were within a four foot span. We started to retrieve them, and I slipped off the bank, stepping into the water. I was OK except for one wet foot.  Mike scooped up the five balls, identified one as mine and split the other four between us.

The two extra that Mike gave me were Titleist. One had printing on it. It read:

The Grunge Tour 2006
No such thing as a lost ball.

The Grunge Tour was a group of guys who played spring golf In Kentucky. I was a part of the group. (We were all from Michigan.) After a couple years we moved the Tour to Myrtle Beach and eventually to Tampa.

Several times during our play in Tampa, one of the guys had a dozen balls printed for each of us. The inscription on the balls was always the same.

The Grunge Tour (the year)
No such thing as a lost ball.

I’m not sure of the odds of this happening – being a member of the Grunge Tour in 2006 in Florida and finding a ball from that monumental event six years later in California – but I’m sure they are astronomical.

When I shared the story with the club pro, he called it, “Spiritual”. After all, we were playing at Cathedral Canyon Country Club in Cathedral City.