The Turtle Bay Championship
After a long absence as a Tour Champion due to injuries, Alabama’s Jerry Pate captured a well deserved victory at the Turtle Bay Championship on the North Shore of Oahu. He did so with winds gusting up to 30 mph that saw almost the entire field carding an above par round. And as a Tournament Volunteer Microphone Operator for the Golf Channel, I was very fortunate to be alongside his threesome, which included Scott Simpson and Fulton Allem, to capture all of the sounds throughout their round. How’s that for excitment? In an interview after completing his round, Pate informed the media that all of his medical rehabilitation was done at a hospital in Birmingham, AL. And as coincidence may have it, this is the same hospital that my wife worked at for several years as a Head Nurse when we lived in Alabama.
My daughter-in-law Melissa has created a website that is solely dedicated to Purple Heart recipients: www.ourpreciousgift.com. It has only been in existance for only a few weeks and already it has gained media attention in Tampa, FL. She was interviewed by Tampa Bay’s Channel 10 on the 18th of Jan. If you go to the above website, you can view the televised interview. Thanks to the publicity, her website is growing in terms of getting Purple Heart recipients registered on the site. If you are a Purple Heart recipient or know of one, please go to the website and register.
Such a deal. I spent the past four days “hob nobbing” with some of the top Professional Golfers in the world as a volunteer at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Honolulu. Was very fortunate to walk along side the likes of Fred Funk, Steve Stricker, Chad Campbell, Kevin Na, Mark Wilson, Brent Snedecker, Robert Gamez, Boo Weekly and J.B. Holmes along with other not so famous Pros such as Alejandro Canizares, Brad Adamonis, Chez Reavie and Doug LaBelle II. Talk about getting free golf lessons from some of the best. I learned so much I’m excited to see if it will improve my game. What’s even better is that I get to do it all over again in a couple of weeks at the Champion’s Tour Turtle Bay Championship. These are the seniors-50+.
The Sony Open
Thanks to one of our members in my Saturday Golf Club, I have been invited to volunteer for the PGA Tour’s Sony Open at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu beginning Thursday, Jan. 10th through Sunday, Jan. 13th. I will be working with the Television Crew and will up close and personal with the players during their rounds. Who knows, there may even be some face time on national television. I am so excited and can’t wait. This is not the first, several years ago, while living in Florida, I was fortunate enough to be a volunteer for the PGA Champion’s Tour for three years.
How wonderful it is to spend time with family over the holiday season, especially when Hawaii and Florida are separated by five time zones. The problem is that time seems to fly by so quickly when your there and before you know it you are home again. These quality reunions only happens once a year if we are lucky and it is really depressing not being there to spend time with our children or watch our grandchildren grow. Although I know she will adamantly deny it, our daughter-in-law is putting up a convincing front for us to move back to Florida. Even though for the past seven years, we have enjoyed being home again in Hawaii, my wife and I aren’t getting any younger and spending time with our kids and grand-kids is our number one priority. So, back to Florida we are heading whenever we can figure out the most opportune time to make the move.
