What a Difference a Year Makes

Standing in the cold late October Great Falls wind that feels like sandpaper against your face I laid a rose down beside the leaf covered green and thought to myself, “It has been a year.”

Staring up toward the heavens and seeing the clouds slowly pushed across the face of the sky the thoughts came rushing back like they so often do. Instinctively my jaw tensed, I bit my tongue just enough to keep my mind off the pain inside my heart and blinked feverishly to keep the salty tears from sneaking down the sides of my cheeks.

What a difference a year makes.

It was a year ago that my dad called me and broke the news saying, “Jay is gone”. Truthfully the rest of what he said remains a blur. I can retrace my steps and remember exactly where I was when my world lost a bit of its color.

And what a difference a year makes.

Taking Jay’s golf cart out for a final round on the golf course’s last day of the season, my dad and I shared some silent moments with the old lovable redhead.

“Jay spent so much time out here working to make this golf course what it is,” my dad said with a tremble in his voice I don’t often hear. “He did so much work, so he and I could come out and enjoy this course when he retired… Life just isn’t fair.”

In a fair world, cancer wouldn’t take people who fill our lives with color. In a fair world, I wouldn’t be leaving a red rose on the apron of every green on a bitterly cold last day in October. In a fair world, my heart wouldn’t break, my jaw wouldn’t tense, and I wouldn’t blink to fight back tears when the memories come flooding back.

Memories, like the ones I’ve got of Jay hide around every corner of Eagle Falls Golf Course. And now thanks to Jay, I have memories across every golf course in Montana.

Jay’s was a story I shared with nearly everyone I met and teed it up with across the Treasure State this summer and it would go a little something like this:

One the first tee of every golf course in Montana, from Plentywood to Dillon, and Eureka to Broadus, I would dig in my golf bag for a ball and a tee and see your obituary tucked safely inside the side pocket. Tattered and ragged from being held and passed around the fourth largest state in the Union, I would tell my new friends about how your passing inspired me to make my own dream of playing every golf course in Montana a reality.

I would share that, “A great friend of mine passed away after a short battle with pancreatic cancer who had always wanted to go on a golf trip with my dad and me. There were ideas for golf trips we had kicked around and planned in the hypothetical sense only to have Jay taken away before we could ever make it happen. So, I put Jay’s obituary in my golf bag when I started this journey and would play every golf course in Montana with him with me.”

And I did just that.

Across the 8,507.3 miles I racked up on the odometer in my 2012 Ford Focus that was packed to the gills with notebooks, golf balls, a golf bag, and six golf shirts, four pairs of shorts, two pairs of pants, and more socks and underwear than I knew what to do with, I had a copilot in spirit. Cruising down the lonely highways of Eastern Montana and the windy mountain roads of Western Montana, Jay was with me.

During the long days when I walked more miles with a golf bag slung over my shoulders than I ever thought possible, and my feet would ache, and the rainstorms that all too often included bits of hail hit like a ton of bricks, I would have moments of weakness. The doubting thoughts would sneak into my consciousness.

And that was when I’d reach into my golf bag and pull out Jay’s obituary.

On the anniversary of Jay’s leaving us, my dad and I played one final round of our first year without Jay. As we played we scattered roses across all 18 holes at Eagle Falls in memory of a great friend who I know we wish we didn’t have to fight back tears whenever we think about him. But the pain and hurt of missing a loved one doesn’t fade with time. And neither does the amount I miss him.

What a difference a year makes.

 

In loving memory of my friend Jay Baumberger (Jan. 7, 1952-Oct. 31. 2017)

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“Of Loss & Love” at John’s Golf Course

“Hit this one high over the house and drop it on the green,” Steve Espinoza said from the seat of his utility cart. “And make sure you don’t break my windows.”

I steadied myself over the ball and was just about to take the club back when Steve reminded me again with a laugh, “Make sure you don’t break my windows.”

These were the same instructions he’d given to Sir Nick Faldo years ago when he arrived to play an exhibition at John’s Golf Course outside of Eureka, Montana and had given to countless others over the years who’ve played the course surrounding the Espinoza home.

The story of John’s Golf Course begins with a tragedy. In 1993, the Espinoza family was woken up at 3 in the morning by a Highway Patrolman. Michael Espinoza, 20 years old back then, was killed in a car crash outside of Eureka returning from dinner with some friends in a nearby town. Michael was the second of their children that Steve and Juana had lost after losing an infant daughter almost two decades earlier.

For Steve, a disabled Vietnam veteran, the loss was crushing. It broke his heart even more to tell his son John who was born with Cornelia de Lange syndrome which is a very rare genetic disorder that causes a range of physical, cognitive, and medical challenges to those diagnosed with it. John had looked up to his older brother Michael with the same loving admiration as all younger brothers do and now he was gone.

About a year later, John walked into Michael’s room and grabbed a golf club of his brother’s and took it downstairs to his parents and asked his dad to teach him how to play golf. Part of John’s disability is a lack of a range of motion in his wrists, so in the front yard of their house Steve teed up a ball for John to hit.

“Not knowing how to teach someone to play, I just told John to hit the ball,” Steve said with a twinkle in his eye. “And he did, he hit it clear across the yard! And I said, ‘John, my god! What a shot! Do it again.’ And he did it again, it was amazing.”

So, Steve took John to a nearby golf course to play but John got too nervous with all the people in front of them and behind them.

“I got so nervous. I got so nervous my very first time. People kept rushing me and telling me to hurry up. I told my dad I wanted to go home,” John recalled.

“On the way home John said, ‘I wish I had my own golf course.’ So, I got home and stepped out of the car and saw the front lawn and said, ‘I’m going put a green right here for my son,’” Steve said of the beginning of John’s Golf Course.

And Steve did just that for his son on his 10-acre property. Asking for help from courses in the area and then eventually all around the world, he got seed, used equipment, and tips for building and maintaining a golf course from course superintendents.

John’s Golf Course played all around the Espinoza home with holes spread around the 10-acres that John could play whenever he wanted, after of course he helped mow the greens and fairways with his father. John would play the course from sun up to sun down and his game showed it as he went on to win 10 Montana State Special Olympic Championships and took home bronze from the Special Olympics World Games in Dublin, Ireland.

With John and Steve riding in the golf cart and giving me directions on how to play the remnants of the holes left at John’s Golf Course, I played all the holes including the one requiring a shot up and over the house. I was extra careful to not break any of Steve’s windows on this over-the-house par 4.

Leaving John’s Golf Course was tougher than I thought it would be because it had warmed my heart. Meeting Steve and John and having them show me their course and tell me their story was something I will cherish for the rest of my life.

John’s Golf Course was built in a front yard using earth, sand, and seed, but it was really built with love. The love of a mourning father who wanted to give his special needs son a place to learn to play the greatest game on earth.

That’s what love is. Love is John’s Golf Course.

Thanks to the Espinoza Family for having me out to play John’s Golf Course and for sharing your stories with me. It is a memory I won’t forget.

“You’ll Leave There Inspired” at Polson Bay

It isn’t every day you get to play with a champion, but at Polson Bay Golf Course I got to do just that when I teed it up with 4-time Montana State Special Olympics Champion Robbie Hayes and his stepfather Roger Wallace.

The Championship Course at Polson Bay is an amazing track that stretches down near Flathead Lake and offers up some of the best views in Montana from a number of tee boxes including the opening hole. The 1^st at Polson Bay is a 404-yard par 4 that doglegs left past high cottonwoods and a bunker on the left corner of the fairway. From an elevated tee box, this picture-perfect opening hole requires a solid opening tee shot to set up a mid-iron into an undulating green protected by a bunker in the front left.

As Robbie, Roger, and I played our way around the front nine at Polson Bay, Robbie told me all about all the medals he’s won in Special Olympics. Not just a golfer, Robbie has also won medals in a variety of track events at the Special Olympics State Games.

“I’m super fast,” Robby explained on the 3^rd hole after using his lefty swing to hit one down the fairway. It caught me off guard that Robbie hits the ball left handed but putts right handed.

Roger laughed as he explained, “Robbie used to really slice his putts when he putted left handed. It was just something we noticed when Robbie was putting around in the pro shop. He actually putted the ball better from the other side.”

So, with 13 left handed clubs, one right handed putter, and with his stepfather Roger as his caddy, Robbie has proven to be quite the player. He’s also proven to be quite the inspiration. I can’t be sure there are more people I admire in golf than Robbie, or Roger for that matter who has taught Robbie everything he knows about the game.

The par 5 6^th hole at Polson is as great a visual hole as it is playable. A long dogleg left along the lake, this par 5 can be reached in two but traditionally plays as a three-shot hole. A narrow landing area lined on the left by hazard and a pair of bunkers along the right demands an accurate tee shot before the hole turns left and plays uphill to a green protected by bunkers on both sides.

Finishing our round on the Championship Course on the 528-yard 18^th hole that bends slightly right-to-left, Robbie, Roger, and I capped off a perfect morning in Polson. Reachable in two, the green is protected by a large bunker in the front right of the undulating putting surface.

After the round, Robbie and I had lunch and visited about golf and his favorite holes on the Championship Course before he and Roger left to go camping for the weekend and I headed out to the Olde Course.

My playing partner for the Olde Course was 8-year old Max Milton. Max is the son of Polson’s Head Golf Pro Cameron Milton and a pretty darn good stick. He recently won the state competition for the Drive, Chip, and Putt competition in Missoula and as we played the first couple of holes on the Olde 9 Max told me he wants to play on the PGA Tour and eventually win a major.

Being a betting man, I made a wager with Max who was raising funds for his trip to Washington to compete in the regional Drive, Chip, and Putt competition. The deal was, I would play the tips and Max would play the junior tees and we’d play straight up. If he beat me, I’d give him $100 for his trip but if I beat him I’d give him $50.

Early in the round at the Olde 9, Max might’ve had me on the ropes as his game was as consistent as it gets. With the straps of his small golf bag draped across his shoulders the aspiring major winner played down the center of every fairway while I had to wrangle with my drive on a few holes.

Luckily, I made a few putts and tossed in a birdie or two against the 8-year old who was able to brag in the clubhouse about the $50 he won in our match. I was just relieved I could register a win against a future major winner.

Hours later I was driving around Polson and decided to head by the course and work on my putting on the practice green. I found Max on the putting green, practicing his short game late into the evening and he and I played a few putting games for about an hour before the street lights came on and he hopped on his bike to head home.

Looking across the course at Polson Bay Golf Course and seeing Max ride his bike down the cart path, I don’t think I could’ve had a better day of golf. In such a spectacularly beautiful place I found some amazing and inspiring people in Robbie, Roger, and young Max.

If you’re looking for a place to inspire your golf game, Polson Bay is that place.

Thanks to Cameron Milton, Roger Wallace, and the rest of the staff at Polson Bay for a fantastic day of golf and memories at such a great course.

 

“The Links” at Northern Pines Golf Club

Growing up in Great Falls I know a thing or two about the wind.

First things first, it sucks. Secondly, it can wreak havoc on golf shots if you’re not prepared. Always feeling like the wind in your face was a common theme in my youth and I think it prepared me for links golf.

Northern Pines in Kalispell is as good a links golf course as I’ve come across on this trip. At over 7,000 yards from the tips, this Andy North design has long fescue rough bordering every hole and large greens protected by deep bunkers that require flighted irons and creative plays around the greens to score well.

With the breeze into your face on the 384-yard 1^st hole that bends left past some rolling hills that hide the fescue rough that sits through the fairway ready to eat any tee shots running through the short grass. A low spot along the fairway on the left serves as a collection area for tee shots leaving a slightly uphill second shot into a green that slopes from back right to front left an dis protected by a deep bunker in the front of the putting surface.

An excellent links course presents challenges to golfers that in turn have to use creativity to carve their way through the rolling hills and fescue with success. Northern Pines is a links course that gets the little imagination working while you play the course by presenting multiple ways to play some of the shorter holes.

An example of this is the par 4 9^th that plays 430-yards, usually downwind, but has dangers all down the right side of the fairway. If the deep bunker at 260-yards down the right side doesn’t dispel players from taking an aggressive line on this hole that doglegs slightly to the right, the deep grass bunker past the sand bunker will leave you sorry you didn’t play it out safely into the left side of the fairway. A pair of bunkers in the front left are to be avoided when hitting into this undulating and tiered green.

The 404-yard 14^th at Northern Pines is my favorite hole on the course. A slight dogleg right from an elevated tee box, this hole has a string of bunkers running down the right side of the fairway and a hazard running down the left. A lone bunker in the front right protects this green that slopes harshly from back right to front left that sits near the meandering river and in the shade of some tall trees in the backdrop.

Battling wind and fescue, my first time playing Northern Pines was an absolute treat. Links style golf courses will always hold a special place in my heart because of the shots they require and the elements you are forced to battle.

The wind of course is old hat for a guy who grew up in windy Great Falls, but the dangers of Northern Pines were a new and exciting challenge I would take up any day.

Thanks to Northern Pines Golf Club for a wonderful day of golf on this great links style track.

“An Evening 18” at Village Greens Golf Course

Evening golf is sometimes the best golf, and at Village Greens that was just the case. A par 70 course in Kalispell, this wonderful course that features rolling fairway hills and small lakes around a track that stretches to 6,401 yards from the tips, Village Greens is an enjoyable course.

The opening hole at Village Greens is a 586-yard par 5 and is listed as the toughest hole on the course. A dogleg right with a lake to the right of the fairway, twin bunkers midway through the fairway after the dogleg narrow the apron of the undulating green that is protected by a bunker in the front left.

The 4^th and 5^th holes at Village Greens are back-to-back par 3s playing 180 and 140-yards apiece. The 180-yard 4^th plays to an undulating green protected by long rough on all sides while the 5^th requires the golfer to carry the water that protects the front of this green slopes from back-to-front and will feed shots hit too short down the hill and into the water.

On the beautiful summer evening, my playing partner Shay Smithwick-Hann and I were playing at a great pace. It wasn’t too long until we had made our way onto the back nine in less than an hour-and-a-half and stood on the tee on the tough par 4 13^th.

A 467-yard hole that plays from an elevated tee down the hill and back up to an elevated green, this challenging hole has a fairway that is sandwiched in between a large pond on the right side and a diabolical bunker on the left.

After such a tough par 4, the reward is a short par 4 that plays 387-yards from an elevated tee and meanders to the right past the same pond, this time on your right, to a green stuck on the sidehill above 13^th tee.

Village Greens plays to a par 70 because it has five par 3s and only three par 5s on the course. It was a perfect course to play in the evening with quick greens, a variety of different and challenging holes, and a great pace of play.

Thanks to Village Greens for a great evening of golf on such a fun and enjoyable course in Kalispell.