A Tradition Unlike Many Others

Bill Shakespeare had “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I have a midsummer afternoon tradition, and almost like the Masters, it’s not like many others.

One co-worker of mine—who shall remain nameless—loves to point out the fact that he rarely hangs out with anyone he graduated high school with. I, on the other hand, have tried to keep many high school friends close to me. There are three in particular with whom I have a special bond.

We don’t really have a name, but you can call us the “Fantastic Foursome” maybe even the “Fab Four.” I could care less what you call us, but the fact is, it’s been a very fun summer of golf for myself and three friends—Jake Meyer, Mike McGowan and Marc George.

It was an idea that was born when we were juniors at Elder High School, and the summer heading into our senior year it took off. Once a week, or as often as possible, we’d go out and play nine holes of golf. We’ve been to courses all across Cincinnati, but have kept our true Westside roots.

It’s never rarely about who wins or who loses, who had the best drive or who has the best putts, but it’s all about something more. As Marc has exclaimed numerous times during our rounds, “I don’t care what the score is. Today, well, I’m just happy to be out here with you guys.”

And nothing could be more true.

This afternoon Mike, Jake and I played one final round (Marc had a scheduling conflict and could not play). This year was a rather light year on the golf, at least in comparison to last year where we played at least ten times. This year we got out only five times, but we made the most of each of the five opportunities. We even tried to play at new courses.

In fact, our first venture out might have been the best of the year. We played nine holes at Glenview golf course, and Jake and I were literally along for a ride. Marc and Mike had just gotten back from a two-week tour of Ireland with the Elder Glee Club and they told story after story after story. It never got old.

It was pretty neat to hear about their journey, interjecting memories of past trips I had been on, and Jake’s added perspective of the trips with Elder’s band certainly made it all worthwhile.

We went back to my house and talked for nearly three hours, looking back at the two Elder Glee Club trips that I went on, and adding story after story to the already great tale. And here’s the odd thing, as different as we are, we rarely argue over anything.

We don’t all like the same music, we don’t vote for the same people, and we all go to different schools (and actually Mike is transferring for Xavier to UC, so that fact isn’t necessarily true anymore), but the one thing we all love is playing golf.

When I look back at this summer, and the rounds we’ve played in the past, I remember the good holes and the great holes, and I try to forget the bad holes. But, as much as we’d all like to forget the eight that we took on the fifth hole, we remember the stories we told, the moments we shared looking for the errant tee shot that lead to that eight, and the jokes we made—of course all at each other’s expense.

One of my favorite songs of all time is Rascal Flatts’s “God Blessed the Broken Road.” My favorite quotable line from that is, ‘This much I know is true’. And, ‘This much I know is true,’ that each and every year we have the time and ability, we’ll be out golfing somewhere. After all, who else is going to play 18 with me at the Brickyard Crossing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

There are few people I’d rather golf with than these guys. There’s no better way to close it than exactly how Jake did this afternoon. He looked at Mike, looked at me, and stated simply, “Another fun summer of golf down.” What we didn’t say was, “There’s many more left to go.”

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The stay at Camp Higher Ground is almost over and when I get back home on Saturday I’ll share some thoughts about NASCAR, the Florida Marlins and maybe even a Coach Kelly-ism or two. Until then, we’ll grind out a few more practices here and then get ready for the season to finally begin in a few days. Enjoy the first part of your weekend, thanks for reading.