from the 9th fairway.
Today was the day my brother & I had been waiting to have since a year ago – we were returning to Springdale to golf. We knew there’d be challenges since dad’s health scare a mere 6 weeks ago, but dad was up for the trip over the mountain. We knew golfing or simply being back on the course would provide the best “medicine” he could receive. So, away we went…
Imagine our surprise when we turned the corner leading to the clubhouse and saw NOTHING familiar. The clubhouse – gone. The reception/pro shop – gone. The parking lot and golf cart return – gone. It was like someone had sucked all the air from the room!
WE WERE STUNNED!
We checked in, paid our greens fees, loaded up the carts and went to the 1st tee – which really wasn’t the “1st tee” because it used to be the “10th tee”…the owner had swapped the “front” & “back” sides too!
“This just isn’t acceptable. I wonder what else the new owner changed?”
We began noticing many things were different – trees had been removed/added, sand traps enlarged, grass allowed to grow tall etc etc etc. Once we got through the initial shock, everyone seemed to have settle down. Life on the course was good, until…
We made the “turn” to play the “10th hole”; which was the original “1st hole”. The owners had removed a tree, but not just any tree. They removed the “Lab Family Tree” – the tree we used as a target for the past 35 years! It was heartbreaking! I began to cry. Why would they do that to us? How could they do it to us?
Then my dad said something brilliant, “…here’s to progress. Right now it may hurt, but what is done is done and we cannot change that. What we can do is accept change and move on. We’ve had the joy of this course and that tree and all those buildings for as long as we have been coming here. They can remove all of those things, but they cannot remove the memories we have made over time. Let’s just focus on today and let what happens tomorrow happen tomorrow. All we really have is today.”
Then I started thinking…
While my brother, dad and I have been coming to Springdale for the past 35 years, we were with someone making their first trip – my nephew Conner. If we’re lucky and our futures allow, maybe he’ll grow as fond of the “new” buildings as we were of the “old”… and maybe the rest of us will learn to love the “new” also.
Renewal means change. It means – “Out with the old. In with the new.” Funny, but as the course goes through renewal, so does our group. We get a new person with a fresh look at the course and new energy. Energy will renew us, carry us forward and just might be repeated sometime in the future, who knows?
All I can hope & pray is the next 25 or so years are filled with the same hope, joy, laughter, fun and love as the past 35 have been.
I/we just have to tell ourselves, “Yes, everything is going to be “ok”. Really. It will be.”
Dan’s View 