Young Golfers Set Good Example

Bob McClellan, Polson

It has always been one of my beliefs that the game of golf and the game of life have much in common. If we were to live life as we have been taught to play the game of golf — with integrity, honoring of others, focus upon personal improvement, honesty and tolerance — this world would be a much more pleasant, peaceful and dynamic place in which to live.

On Friday, Oct. 10 and Saturday, Oct. 11 Polson hosted the “State A Golf Tournament” at the Polson Bay Golf Course. It was a most successful and well organized event. Club pro and director of golf Roger Wallace; Cameron Milton, assistant golf pro; and the entire staff along with 50-plus volunteers did a magnificent job. Abby Dooley’s “Tee Box Cafe” provided most excellent service and food throughout the entire event. The condition of our golf course, through the dedicated work of superintendent Pat Nowlen and his crew, could not have been better. Polson can be very proud of this well coordinated tournament. Results, I’m sure, will be fully covered in the Leader.

I was a volunteer “marker”, assigned to accompany a golfing group, at a specific tee time, both Friday and Saturday. I was assigned to the boys’ teams. My job was purely and simply to keep track of each boy’s strokes on each hole, verifying these scores with the boys before they would tee off on the next hole. What a great experience this was. It renewed my faith in our future as a nation.

When I witnessed the manner in which these high school age boys conducted themselves under quite intense pressure, much came to mind for me. First of all, I realized how respectful they all were to each other and for the rules of golf. Then I realized that this does not happen by their watching violence on TV, playing weird video games, listening to angry and disillusioned adults in their lives, and having too much spare time with nothing to do.

Bill Owens is the fine and dedicated coach of both the girls’ and boys’ golf teams. And we realize that Bill Owens is one example of the many, many other leaders of youth in our community who are making a difference in young lives day in and day out through sports, music, drama, after-school kids programs, classroom teaching, administration … the list is long.

We can look at the national scene today and argue politics until we are blue in the face. We can look at our international scene and wonder if we will ever regain our reputation as a leader of the free world. We can get angry at most any adult candidate for any office in our land for one reason or another and fully justify our anger.

I submit that if the young boys and girls who competed in the recent State A Golf Tournament here in Polson are a good example of the ‘critical mass’ of boys and girls in this country who are the future of our nation, then we will be in good hands. And remember this important fact. A ‘critical mass’ does not have to be a majority; it is actually much, much less. Let’s all do everything we can to support our educational system and those who teach and guide our young people.