[Yoda]

What a treasure signature Yoda....a little off topic but can you share with us when your fascination/romance for the GAME began.

About age eleven, I learned two things about golf, one from my Dad and one by myself. From Dad I learned that golf takes a long time to play. On my own, I learned that golf balls go farther than baseballs.

My Dad was military, and I learned both these things in Germany. There were no courses near our American community, and when Dad played, which wasn't often, he would always come in at night. So it seemed to me that golf took a very long time to play.

For my first swing, I used my mom's Patty Berg 3-wood. I couldn't use Dad's clubs because he was left-handed. I don't know if I hit the ball on the first try, but I do know that when I did make contact, I fouled it from our backyard (in a community apartment complex) into a neighbor's balcony. There was a terrific crash as the ball slammed into their glass sliding door, so I didn't hang around long and don't know what happened after that. But I do remember my first feeling . . . Wow. Golf balls go farther than baseballs. A lot farther!

I even liked the smell of golf balls. And their stickiness, one against the other, right out of the sleeve. I would take'm out and roll 'em around in the palms of my hands, then put 'em back and pull 'em out and roll 'em around again. I liked the painted wooden tees, too. Dad had a million of 'em in the deep pocket of his canvass bag, in all different colors, and I would dig down in there, crunch around, and bring'em up by the handful.

I didn't touch a golf club for the next three years and then only as a caddy in the chicken-wire pen behind the putting green at the old O.B. Keeler Golf Course in Kennesaw, Georgia. But then and there in my backyard is when I learned the truth . . .

I love golf.