Golf can help us create our best memories

Memories, we all have them. The painful ones we call experience but the good ones, well, they are worth their weight in gold.

I was privileged this past week to be let in on someone else’s memories.  It seems that two ex-policemen were enjoying the Rugby Classic one evening when one pulled from his wallet a clipping from the Royal Gazette from 1981. 

No, it’s not a typo, the clipping was indeed from 1981, almost 30 years ago.  Memories are golden and keep us smiling decade after decade.

Back in 1981, one of these two ex-policemen won an 18-hole semi-final match two up after having been six down to his opponent through 7 holes. Six down with 11 holes left to play and wins the match two up means he won eight of the next 11 holes. Now that is what I call a good memory.

But it doesn’t end there.  It seems that on winning this particular match back in 1981, the ex-policemen then went up against the other ex-policemen, the one with whom he was enjoying this year’s Rugby Classic, and beat him in the final. And he produced another Royal Gazette clipping from 1981 to prove it, which of course was the point from the beginning.

The cast of characters in this particular memory are Rick Osborne, Steve Taylor and Keith Cassidy but I shall leave it to you to place them in their correct slot within the memory.  Here’s a clue to help you – Rick Osborne is not an ex-policeman.

This is but one example of how golf impacts our lives in such positive ways, and leaves us with great memories to reminisce about years later. There are many of us with memories like this, and all of us, even those of us who are on the less fortunate side of the memory, relive the memory with great joy and laughter.

This shows why golf is one of the greatest sports a community can provide for its citizens. Golf is a sport that is played with integrity and honesty, and where each player respects every other player. It teaches us that we must work hard if we wish to make headway, that we will lose more often than we win, and that there is no shame in doing less well than we had hoped for as long as we put our best foot forward.

In this day and age where our community is going downhill rather rapidly, where huge sums of money have been spent on football and cricket with little to show in return, it would be rather nice if the Ministry now responsible for Sport allocated increased sums of money to golf, and in particular to Ocean View. I’m sure Quinton Sherlock Jr would put the funds to good use at Ocean View, and would perhaps introduce the Tee-Lo programme from Florida.