I don't have a personal story, but I do have one from a friend. My friend won the Kemper Open in 1974. In those days, all tour winners were invited to play in the Masters.
He received his invitation and of course was very excited.
He got to the club on Monday and played practice rounds Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday they posted the starting times. He was the first player in the first group on Thursday morning.
So they have the opening ceremony where Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead tee off to play their nine holes. The they announce my friend's name. He is standing on the tee and he says to me that people are ten deep all around the tee and up both side of the fairway and even circling the green.
having played on tour eleven years, he figured that he would be able to handle it. I asked him if he was nervous and he said that his hands were shaking and he thought that he was going to throw up on his shoes.
I asked if he hit a good drive and he said, "Nah, I hit it in the bunker". But then with a gleam in his eye he says to me, "But I made par".
Unfortunately, he didn't make the cut and other than his win at the Kemper and two losses in playoffs, he didn't have a very successful career. But, he did have that moment that not very many people will ever experience.
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The Beatlemaniacs of The Villages meet every Friday 10:00am at the O'Dell Recreation Center.
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." - Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, April 22, 1800.
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