Parker, CO
August 2007
The rumor for the last 400 years was that Golf stood for Gentleman Only Ladies Forbidden.! It's a backronym. They say that the Scottish actually originated it back in the 15th century even though the Dutch and the Chinese date the game way before us Celts.
As most of you know, my life changed.......DRAMATICALLY, with the Wall Street fall out at the beginning of the year as well as the past three weeks. It has been nothing less than a lesson in humility, resourcefulness, and networking. And in trying to be a resourceful girl, selling cars for John Elway Toyota was a little too on the brutal side for me to handle as I want everyone to have everything for FREE!! :) However, if you want to know anything about Bilstein suspension systems, VVTI engines, the aerodynamic engineering of the Prius, or how a Hybrid engine works......just ask! So here I am.........back in the game of golf and though my income has dropped substantially and I am working weekends and nights, I've never been happier!! ! I'm home. A little broke, but HOME!!
Our golf course is a members only club just south of Parker, Colorado on the way out to Castlewood Canyon. It's an old club and the echo of hammering denotes the promise of the up and coming BrightStar Golf Company to acquire and improve the truly BEST golf courses nationwide that have so long been neglected. It's not only the members that inspired me to gravitate back to this industry.......it's the tournaments and the people it breeds.
From Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to Aspen, Colorado to Denver, I have had the opportunity to witness benefit tournaments inspired by a core commitment to a cause. From promotable, larger than life games like The NBA, The NBL(that one was fun!!), the Annual Broncos Alumni, to the sincere life transforming smaller ones like Toys for Tots out at Heritage Eagle Bend where Ken Cox raises more money and supplies more bicycles than the whole state of Colorado at Christmas time. The Marines line up with gratitude as they load their three covered caravan trucks to surprise children that have hope, that there really is a Santa Claus. Two weeks ago we hosted a tournament for a newly graduated senior from Ponderosa High School, who was killed in a car accident on the way to visit relatives in Illinois only four weeks after graduation. It was the fourth year for this tournament, as he grew up at The Pinery and golf was his passion. Still, most of his friends showed up, his family, his uncles, aunts, grandparents and an influx of people who had never met him. They only heard through the grapevine what a tremendous spirit this boy possessed. The proceeds from his tournament go to fund a tour bus that transports the kids from Ponderosa High School to events, whether it be Wrestling, Band, or Football games. There is heart and reason behind it.
This morning, I arrived at the club with my two little boys in tow(no babysitter at 6:30am!!) to help Randy and Katie set up for a tournament that I really wasn't clear about. It wasn't until after the golfers came in from their 18 that we all began to fathom the passion behind it. Here's how the story goes......
One of our members had some kids, 3 boys and a girl. One of the boys was born with Down's Syndrome. He lived with his parents through his adulthood and maintained a steady job at the local McDonald's here in Parker. He passed away in the year 2000. Through his death, his family was inspired to raise money in team with the Special Olympics and Departmental Partners in order to fund camping trips, rafting trips, gym memberships, bowling leagues for people with disabilities. They implemented a store where all proceeds go for funding which is located in Aurora and recently opened one in Littleton. People flew in from Chicago, called in sick to work, closed their businesses today in order to pick up their clubs and play for this memorable man. Mom and Dad, sister and brothers passionately set up the largest tournament in seven years. However, it was like any other tournament until the MC called a group of this man's friends up to the podium.
This was a different crowd to begin with. There were no celebrities. The MC, since 2000, brought up the friends and within the next hour I saw freedom......pure, unbridled, passionate, fun, happy freedom. I longed to be like them. They sang, they danced, they laughed with everything beautiful they carry inside with no measure of how brutal reality can be. They live for the moment, for who they are, for how they feel.
In the dusk of the Colorado heat, I walked away with a renewed perception that life is WAY too short to skip away a minute of bliss, a second of hope, an hour of joy. That in death, there is a transformation of spirit into power. That in life, there is happiness in simplicity. Simplicity of a joke, a song, a dance, a cashier at the local hamburger hangout.
amused
chipper