Thousands of fans crowded the streets of Los Angeles smiling, cheering, clapping, and raising their fists in the air in conjunction with their WOO-HOOS. They were celebrating the Kings finally winning the Stanley Cup.
I’m a Kings fan. Did I make the trek? Was I there?
No.
I was busy cheering on the only athlete that mattered today. My son.
It was the big Golf Challenge today. Kids and parents ready for this mini Master’s Tournament to begin. I knew my son could do well. He had a chance to win that awesome green shirt — our version of the elusive green blazer awarded at The Master’s. If everything went right, he had a chance. But three-year olds are unpredictable. One minute they’re focused on chipping and putting on the green, the next minute they see a Rollie-pollie and it’s on. Insects rule!
So it could be anyone’s game. In light of this fact, I came prepared. I brought an extra KitKat. I mean I would be proud of my son’s efforts no matter what. First, second, or third. My son was still awesome to me. However, sometimes a three-year old doesn’t see it that way, so I brought his chocolate of choice.
I put it in the bag and we were off.
Coach Jeff created a great set of challenges throughout the golf academy. Each kid got an opportunity to hit three golf balls at every challenge. This would test the skills we learned throughout the Spring. They teed off, chipped onto the green, did some putting, and hit the driving range.
Everyone seemed to do great teeing off. Every kid got points and it remained pretty even until the chipping challenge. For those non golfers out there, chipping happens when the ball is just a few yards away from the putting green and the golfer hits the ball in a way that it pops up in the air and rolls onto the green. It’s supposed to be a smooth move, but sometimes balls land in the sand trap and that’s where golfers lose it. But that did not happen today.
Coach Jeff had three rings around the hole and each ring earned points. I was little nervous, but my son got up there with confidence. We tried to set him up and then he paused.
“Where’s my golf glove. I need it.”
I laughed. I took out the miniature black-and-white FootJoy golf glove, which was still a little too big in the thumb area and gave it to Coach Jeff. After a couple of minutes, he finally put it on my son and placed the ball on the grass.
“You can do it.”
This was my last piece of advice.
I couldn’t believe that my son almost got a hole-in-one. He was inches away from the hole and all the parents cheered. It was sweet. Two out of the three shots landed in the inner circle and he racked up the points. I was so proud of him.
He did well. There was no speed golf or hockey play on the putting green, either. At times, my son prefers playing at 80 MPH when he needs to be going 1 MPH. But that wasn’t the case today. Must’ve been the glove.
He was focused when he needed to be and showed good sportsmanship as well. And that was thing … sportsmanship and courtesy. It was in abundance that day, from parents and kids. It was great to be in a friendly sports challenge, where it was actually friendly. No crazy moms or dads were there. No reality-tv-drama attitude. Everyone was very encouraging, even when it took kids a while to get to the hole, everyone cheered. The self-esteem was rockin’.
The I-Got-Skills Shirt
So when the challenge was finished, we made our way back to the clubhouse. We saw the prized green shirt — just like the green jacket from the Master’s. Well … probably not like that, but it was still the first prize. The points were tallied. Coach called up sixth, fifth, and fourth place finishers.
Then there were only three. Then two. Then one. Turns out, I didn’t need the KitKat after all. I knew he had done well. The chipping. It was the chipping. He had totaled 465 points. And that had earned him the green shirt and a Tootsie Roll pop.
Apparently it was the best Tootsie Roll pop he had ever tasted.
The Wish Factor 