A Good Walk Unspoiled

[Guest authored by Tim]
While water slides were the unequivocal highlight of the vacation, a close #1B for Danny was "golfing with Daddy" on a real golf course. Due to renovation, the hole right outside our condo was closed, enabling Danny and I to intrepidly transition from our backyard to real tees and greens.

Danny has one "real" golf club, a sand wedge, in addition to his myriad (mostly broken from overuse) plastic clubs. In anticipation of the big moment of hitting the course, Danny was intent on practicing with his real club inside the condo. With Danny, there are no half swings, so we frequently uttered the admonition "Danny, be careful, that club is dangerous inside the condo," to try and protect furniture, life, and limb. Thus, as we were ready to hit the course, Danny issued my second favorite line of the trip: "I'm going to bring my dangerous club, and my yellow putter, and my red one." I view this as a lost marketing idea for Titleist, who would sell millions of "dangerous" clubs if so branded.

Our hole, which we played back-and-forth 9 times over 3 days, was #7, a short 320 yard par four with water near the green, and importantly, 2 sand traps. The basic plan was that I'd hit a 9-iron, Danny would blast away a few times, and then he'd pick up his ball and we'd go walk to mine. Then repeat, closing in on the green, where we'd eventually hit a few putts, and then play the hole backward toward the tees. Danny was, as expected, very excited throughout. With some practice, he not surprisingly started to make solid contact with the ball and even get a few airborne. Additionally, he was very open and respectful to instruction. When he took a divot (frequently), he learned to stomp it down. We worked on getting his hands in the right order on the club (right hand low), and when I shouted "Danny, hands!" he dutifully stopped his swing and re-gripped. He also cheered for all of my shots with genuine enthusiasm ("Wow, great shot Daddy!"), which made me feel as if I was in the U.S. Open.


The entire experience was great, and made me long for future golf adventures as he gets older. Two highlights stick out. On the second day, Danny hit a shot that veered into the greenside bunker. "Oh man, I hit it in the bunker" he joyfully exclaimed. That was the first thing he told Liz and Clare when we returned that night, and was clearly pleased that he got to go into the bunker and hit it again. On the last day, he topped that, by hitting a nice lofted shot onto the green on our last foray. The pride with which he announced "I hit it onto the green" upon returning home was wonderful. He has subsequently told multiple strangers, plus a few neighbors, about these shots. In fact, many of you reading this may have already heard about them.

BTW, the #1 pronouncement on the trip was as follows. One day, we got the kids soup from Panera for lunch. Danny had black bean soup, and proceeded to slobber the soup all over himself, his clothes, and the table. After watching this for a few minutes, the neat freak in me couldn't stand it, so I asked him to "Focus, Danny." Flash forward to our ride home. Liz jumps into the van from procuring Starbucks, and immediately notes that she's spilled iced coffee on her dress. To which Danny deadpans: "Focus, Mommy."