Two Golfers<\/b><\/p>\n
Two golfers stepped up to the first tee on the St. Andrews course at Ardsley, New York, one of America\u2019s oldest courses. The elder one was a kindly man who played a thoughtful, deliberate game. The younger man was full of pride and impatience. On the first hole he sliced, lost his ball in the tall grass, shot another one, and had a score of eight instead of four or five. On the second tee he began to lecture the caddie: \u201cKeep your eye peeled. I\u2019m not here to do your job for you!\u201d Thereafter, every bad shot was the caddie\u2019s fault! At the end of the first nine holes, the young man was so enraged that he discharged the caddie and carried his own bag. \u201cThat caddie doesn\u2019t like me,\u201d he said to his companion, \u201c and I\u2019m **** sure I don\u2019t like him. He made me nervous. Thank God he\u2019s gone!\u201d<\/p>\n
After several holes had been played without a word, the older player broke the silence: \u201cSeveral years ago a little kid from Yonkers came up here and was taken on as a caddie. He was a wonderfully sweet-natured boy; quick-witted, willing, and had a nose for golf. Everybody liked him. His name was William; he had a club foot. But that didn\u2019t affect his quality as a caddie. It was a pleasure to go out with him. A certain famous doctor, a member of the club, became interested in William and took him South on a long trip. When William returned, he went back to caddying. The doctor, however, had to give up golf shortly after that because of his health. He died a few months later. One morning I was playing a round with William carrying my bag. Spring was running riot all over Westchester County and the fields and hedges were alive with blossoms. William gathered flowers until he had quite a bouquet. \u2018Who\u2019s the girl, William?\u2019 I asked. \u2018I haven\u2019t any girl, sir,\u2019 he said sheepishly. \u2018They\u2019re for my friend, the doctor\u2014twice a week I take flowers to his grave.\u2019 \u201cYou see,\u201d the man went on, \u201cthe doctor took him down South that winter and operated on his foot. He made the boy whole again. And William never forgot the doctor\u2019s act of kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that\u2019s a caddie worth having,\u201d the younger man said. \u201cWhat ever happened to this William?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe carried your bag today for the first nine holes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bits and Pieces, October, 1990<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two Golfers Two golfers stepped up to the first tee on the St. Andrews course at Ardsley, New York, one of America\u2019s oldest courses. The elder one was a kindly man who played a thoughtful, deliberate game. The younger man was full of pride and impatience. On the first hole he sliced, lost his ball … Continue reading “Golfing”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}