John_W |
12-01-2020 02:59 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by jebartle
(Post 1868482)
...Wish I could have played with my Dad. Got to play with my Mom, and that was a hoot, I'll remember those precious moments forever.
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In '62 when I was 12 for some reason I started watching golf on TV, and Arnold and Jack were all the news. I even got Arnold's autograph about that time on a 8 X 10 at the grand opening of his Arnold Palmer Golf School in St. Petersburg. I remember we waited outside for over 3 hours for him to arrive, it was dark and cold by then. They passed out the photos and Arnold went around and signed each one, there must of been 300 or more there. I still have mine.
My dad worked for the City of St. Petersburg, they didn't get paid a lot back then. I wanted to play and they bought me a youth set at Montgomery Wards and my dad got used clubs. To save money, the first year we would leave our house at 6am in St. Petersburg and drive across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, that's 15 miles across Tampa Bay, to Bradenton. There was a course that was 36 holes and you could play all day for $20. That was my first year of golf.
On Saturday the big pink hotel the Vinoy in downtown St. Petersburg near the bay had a small 9 hole par 3 course. My mother would take me every Saturday for about a year and drop me off and for $3 I could play all day. I met another kid there my age named Eddie and had a whole day of golf.
When I was 15 my dad got us a membership in the Sunset Country Club in the Snell Island section of St. Petersburg. For $365 a year the two of us could play all the golf we wanted if we walked. I never knew what it was like to ride in a cart. We played all the time, usually in the afternoon and was caught in dozens of thunder storms. Today the Vinoy Hotel has been refurbished and the same people own the Vinoy and Sunset Country Club. The golf course is now private and very plush and is only for the guests of the hotel.
After I was 19 I left home to join the Army and I always lived in a different city than my parents, so my dad and me only played a couple of times the rest of his life.
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