TEE IT UP
Jack respected the rules and etiquette of golf...to a certain point anyway. Like most regular golfers he was aware of the "pace of play" for the sake of others on the course. So it was particularly annoying to Jack if a group behind him implied in any way that he was slowing them down. Perhaps every so often he would indeed play a hole slowly - to look for not only his ball but as many as he could find in the same section of the woods. Never, though, did I witness him allow a group to "play through" our group. Which wasn't a big deal because we would pick up the pace on the next hole and everybody was fine.
On one particular outing Jack found a creative way to deal with an anxious group behind us. It was a beautiful day at Woodside Plantation in Aiken in March 2002, in what would be my last golf adventure with Jack...and an adventure it was.
Just the two of us, it was a relatively slow round, though not because of Jack or I that day. The group behind us was a mixed doubles group playing "best ball." Because they were all hitting from the best shot of the group on every shot, of course they were moving along at a quick pace. And they probably were annoyed at the slow play, like we were. On the back nine they started hitting their shots a bit early, not waiting for us to entirely clear their possible landing area. So on the third consecutive hole of this, a ball landed only five yards from Jack - who was on the fairway, by the way - not in the woods looking for additions to his collection. Not letting this pass by, Jack walked over to the ball. Of course I thought he was going to hit it back to them, or keep the ball. Even better, he reached into his pocket for a tee and "teed up" their ball in the middle of the fairway then walked away...slowly.
They didn't come close to us again that day.
-Mike Rancourt
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