Mashie Monday
More than a game
This month is a salute to golf pros, mostly to my dad, but also to all of the wonderful people I’ve met who shared his occupation and his love for the game. My dad, Herman J. Lang, was not the only golf pro in my family. My oldest cousin, Fred Challen, was, too.
Today, there are about 32,000 members of the PGA of America, which was founded in 1916. The vast majority are club pros and coaches with the number of players on the PGA Tour ranging from 200-300, depending on the year. It always surprised me that few, if any, of my dad’s assistants aspired to going on the Tour. Not that club pros don’t compete. Every chapter and section of the PGA has various tournaments, and all PGA members can attempt to qualify for the PGA Championship and for the US Open. Balancing a busy summer season with competition is tricky, at best. As you can see in the accompanying photograph (courtesy of my mom), my dad managed to combine the two aspects. In addition, the man had 16 (or so) holes-in-one. He quit counting, so he wasn’t sure about the last one!
Being a club pro means running a small business. When he was the head pro at Inverness in Toledo, my dad employed two assistants (both were always pros), a caddymaster, and several young people who worked in the bag room, on the driving range, and in the cart barn. My mom and I did the bookkeeping, and I was the shop manager for several years. We also had a shop assistant. My takeaway from working for my dad was that it’s a team effort. He always said, “X worked with us.” That applied to everyone. No one ever worked “for” him. This philosophy works in any field of endeavor, not just golf.
For a club pro, the summer season is beyond hectic. Days start early and end late. Weeks can pass without a day off. As a little girl, I often went to the club with my mom. In retrospect, that was probably to make sure we saw him! But they are fun memories. What child doesn’t love to ride in a golf cart? I did.
Many families of pros also spend time at the course. Almost all the wives and kids in our group played the game, and we all socialized. One of my favorite memories is having dinner on Monday nights with my parents, other pros and their families. Most often, these evenings occurred early and late in the season when the dads weren’t so busy. Monday is the usual day off for a club pro, and they often get together. It was not unusual for them to play 36-54 holes! In fact, my dad was late for a surprise birthday party (his) because he’d been on the golf until sunset. In November. When you love the game, you play whenever you can.
Many of my dad’s closest friends were pros, although he had others in different occupations. There is a bond among golf pros that I cannot fully describe, but I know it exists because I’ve seen it up close and personal. It crosses generations and regions. A passion for the game is at its heart, but it extends far beyond that. I can only guess that inside every grown man who is a pro is a little boy who, like my dad, fell in love with the game and could not imagine doing anything else.
Next month, I’ll delve more into working for my dad leading up to, during, and after the U.S. Open at Inverness. What an adventure. And the U.S. Open is next month!
Until then, keep it in the short grass.
