As many of you know, I am an avid, but average, golfer. I love the game that Mark Twain described as “a good walk ruined.” So you can imagine how my heart soared last year, when my daughter, Lucy Gordon, expressed an interest in golf and her desire to attempt to make the junior varsity golf team at her school. Since she was a complete novice of the game, I tried to temper her ambition by saying she should be satisfied if she was just allowed to practice with the team until her skills improved. Anyway, I already know that I will not lower my handicap or get the first lucky bounce this year, because the Golf Gods have smiled on me and Lucy Gordon is now a member of her junior varsity team. Was it her consummate skills? No, it was the numbers – 10 available slots and 10 players who tried out, but who cares. I know over the next few months she will vastly improve at golf; and I am grateful.  

You always hear golf promoted as a great character building experience, since it is the only sport where you can call a penalty on yourself; and are expected to do so. What Lucy Gordon does not know yet is that she is about to have the greatest learning experience any soon to be 15 year old young woman could ever have. For the next 2 ½ months, every weekday afternoon she will spend several hours in the company of 9 young men. Now most fathers would cringe at that thought, but I know the advantage to be gained. See, Lucy Gordon will quickly find out that the “male animal” is actually pretty simple. She will find these young men don’t worry about who said what about whom. She’ll learn that guys are just guys and why words like “hey, fellas, watch this” are the most used last words of men. When athletics are involved, men are out to impress other men; and in doing so, they reveal so much about themselves. Whether its arrogance, ego, insecurity, even compassion, it can all be seen when men are playing with a ball.  

If you have ever seen the movie, Diner, than you know the bridegroom, Eddie, wants his fiancée, Elise, to pass a football quiz on the Baltimore Colts before he’ll marry her. Hey, future beaus of Lucy Gordon, if she ever asks you to grab two of your best friends to fill a foursome be mindful it may be more than golf outing.