By the time you read this there will be less than five full days of school left. If it sounds like I’m afraid it’s because, well, I am. I have a 10-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son who usually get along with each other very well. But in this digital age where kids can lose themselves in a cell phone app, or transport themselves into a video game world it’s far easier for siblings to get along than in year’s past.
This theory was proven to me last night. After being apart a lot of the day, my kids ended the day together on our backyard trampoline. It started off innocently enough with joyful bouncing and a Nerf football.
Within five minutes my sweet and kind children turned into wild animals who attempted to kick, claw and tackle each other. Bodies were mauled and faces were being wedged into the mesh netting. There was screaming and accusations of trampoline assault. Of course anger and tears soon followed – my own. As an at-home dad I’m going to listen to my wife and make a plan for every day and stick to it.
Summer, of course, is great for kids. They get to stay up late and sleep in longer. There’s time for afternoons at a swimming pool, play dates, and you guessed it – golf. My son Jackson played in a qualifying round for the Windsor Junior Golf Team Sunday afternoon while my daughter Katie helped drive the golf cart and eat junk food.
We call her an assistant coach but soon she’ll be a player. Our team has about 20 active, skilled players, who are trying to their best to shoot low scores while nosy parents (including me) follow along. I’ll write about scores in future columns.
Speaking of our Windsor Junior golfers, please let me know if anyone has any complete sets of junior, ladies, or men’s golf clubs they’d be willing to donate to the program. Children who were tiny pipsqueaks six months ago have now grown out of last year’s clubs and parents are not thrilled to buy a new set again this year.
I have hit a few small buckets of golf balls and putted a couple of times since I last wrote, so golf is starting to become fun again. I, along with newly retired teacher Mark Angell and Windsor Assistant Pro Patrick Steiner, taught 50 sixth grade Riebli Elementary School students the finer points of golf in April and May on the Riebli field.
The kids were well behaved and many were naturally skilled despite never holding a club before. If any potential junior golfers want to learn the basics of golf then check out the many golf camps available at www.windsorgolf.com and click on Junior Golf.
On a sadder note, in a span of 24 hours I drove by two golf courses that are no longer with us. Wikiup Golf Club is definitely out of commission and the grass and weeds appear to be over five feet tall. What a loss for the community. That was an excellent and casual place to play golf for beginners and experienced players.
The next day we were driving east and came upon Adobe Creek Golf Course in Petaluma. Twenty years ago I spent many an early morning playing nine holes out there and the course was always in great shape. But times change, as do owners and the course is now closed. It doesn’t look like it has been completely ignored as you can at least see the outline of the fairways and greens as you’re driving east towards Sacramento. Perhaps it will open again someday, but until then Rooster Run is the only course in town.
Please send me a note if you can drop off any lightly used junior clubs or higher quality men’s or ladies clubs. Our goal is to put them in the hands of Windsor Junior Golfers.
Thank you for your time and enjoy the summer.
Matt Calegari can be reached at [email protected].
