The Braddock Road Club

By Richard Haddock

While working at the Braddock Road Club when he was eighteen, Rick Kelly was introduced to golf and April Stark. He fell in love with them both. Under the wing of Archie Sullivan, the clubs venerable pro, Ricks innate golfing skills blossomed, earning a college scholarship and rapid movement onto the burgeoning PGA Tour. His love affair with April became a roller coaster ride as she too grew up and pursued her own career.

Although never attaining superstar status, Rick won his share of tournaments and played well enough to retain his Tour card for forty years. April traveled in and out of his life, finally affirming her love for him. But now, as age and a debilitating condition begin to erode his skills, he ponders life without the game that has defined him for so long and the woman he loves who has mysteriously disappeared from his life.

When the Braddock Road Club is chosen to host this years United States Open, Ricks golfing hopes take a dramatic leap. If he ever had a shot at finally winning golfs most treasured prize, playing the course he knows so well might just be his last hurrah.

Rick surprises everyone by making the cut, but his condition has already cost him valuable strokes and threatens to strike again at any moment. As he plays his final rounds, battling the young stallions who now dominate the sport, aching legs, and his emotions, Rick provides golf fans with one of the most thrilling U.S. Open finishes in history.

The Braddock Road Club provides an intriguing look inside the lives of those who play golf for a living outside the spotlight of fame. This is the story of one mans quest, the sacrifices he made to follow his dreams, and the retrospection of a life that has come full circle, back to the emotional beginnings of his journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475986747

Richard Haddock

Dr. Haddock is retired and lives with his wife, Marilyn, in Northern Virginia.

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Copyright © 2013 by Richard Haddock.

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-8673-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8674-7 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 04/26/2013

Contents

Glossary for the non-golfer

Preface

1    Wednesday—Preview

2    Thursday—Opening Day

3    On The Road Again

4    Billy, Willy and April

5    Archie

6    The Handyman

7    Friday—Cut Day

8    War And Money

9    Strategy

10  Sedgwick

11  Saturday: Moving Day

12  Runaway

13  Labor Day Discoveries

14  School Daze

15  Graduation

16  College and Vietnam

17  Father’s Day At The U.S. Open

18  Turning Pro’

19  The Conquering Hero

20  ROI, Sponsors, and Goodbyes

21  The Back Nine At Braddock Road

22  The Sophomore High

23  The Centreville Boom and Key West

24  Deck The Halls

25  Onto The Radar At Last

26  Golf Loves You Back

27  A Tale of Two Cities

28  My Next Hand of Cards

29  Monday Playoff

30  A Champion Is Crowned

31  Making My Mark

32  The End of the Beginning

33  Love and Legacy

For

Steve Kelly

Archie Compston

Arnold Palmer

Dick and Mary Alice Canney

Golf is played on a five and a half inch course; the area between your ears. Bobby Jones—(U.S. Open champion in 1923, 1926, 1929 and 1930. Amateur).

One day you get chicken; one day you get feathers. Dick Canney—(Director of Golf, Chantilly National Golf & Country Club).

Eighteen holes of golf will teach you more about your foe than will 18 years of dealing with him across a desk. Grantland Rice.

I’ve spent most of my life playing golf. The rest I’ve just wasted. Anonymous.

Forget your opponents; always play against par. Sam Snead (winner of 82 PGA Tour events, including 7 majors. Runner-up in the U.S. Open four times).

Golf is a good walk spoiled. Mark Twain.

Success in golf relies less on strength of body than on strength of mind and character. Arnold Palmer—(winner of 62 PGA events, including 7 majors. U.S. Open champion in 1960.)

The object of golf is not just to win. It is to play like a gentleman, and win. Phil Mickelson—(Winner of 40 PGA events, including 4 majors).

Placing the ball in position for the next shot is 80 percent of winning golf. Ben Hogan—(winner of 64 PGA events, nine majors, including 4 U.S. Open championships).

While playing golf today I hit two good balls. I stepped on a rake. Henny Youngman.

Glossary

for the non-golfer

Birdie: One under par on a given hole.

Bogie: One over par for a given hole.

Double bogie: Two over par on a given hole.

Eagle: Two under par on a given hole.

Hybrid: a recently developed club that combines the loft of the corresponding iron with the head of a driving club.

Irons: metal clubs used primarily for hitting shots into the green. Irons range from 1-9 with a variety of wedges. The lower the number of the iron the greater distance it is designed to achieve via a lower loft and smaller clubface.

Par: The prescribed number of shots for a given hole. Most courses consist of four par threes, four par fives, and ten par fours. The typical course has an overall par of seventy-two.

PGA : Professional Golf Association; responsible for growing, teaching & managing the game via 27,000+ club and Tour professionals.

Snowman: Recording an eight on any given hole.

USGA : United States Golf Association; responsible for establishing the rules of the game, conducting 13 national championships, regulating equipment, maintaining handicaps and course rating systems, & conducting turf management research.

Woods: clubs used for driving or hitting long distances from the fairway. Original driving clubs were made from persimmon, hence the term woods. Modern woods are made of titanium or other lightweight metals.

Preface

For the person who has never played the game, golf must seem like a silly venture, played by often outlandishly clad individuals who traipse back and forth across miles of grass, weeds, and swampland, in every type of weather, all for the purpose of hitting a little white ball as few times as possible during a four hour outing.

But despite the game’s simplistic appearance, golf demands a rare combination of athletic skills and cerebral prowess unmatched in any other sport. Unlike other games that are contested on a standardized field of play, every golf course is different. Indeed, every hole on the same course is different from day to day depending on the weather, how the rough, fairways and greens are cut, the placement of the pins, the direction of the wind, location of the tees, and, of course, the ability of the player to adjust to all these variables. No other game pits the player against the whims of nature, or subjects them to the hidden nuances of its playing field like golf does.

For a sport that doesn’t offer the classic offense-versus-defense configuration, golf provides its own form of opposition to the player: perfectly struck shots often take an unpredictable bounce into bunkers, water hazards, or deep rough. An excellent drive can roll into a divot. A shot just inches off the fairway can have an unplayable lie. Putts can wander off course by hitting an errant spike mark or defy gravity in finding ways to stay out of the cup. Yes, the game defends itself in its own way. Learning how to handle these ‘rub of the green’ situations without succumbing to pity or anger separates the good player from the mediocre one.

Once considered a rich man’s game, golf has evolved and flourished with the advent of new courses that cater to the weekend golfer, the affordability of equipment and course fees, the exposure of professional golf on television where the sport has produced a legion of heroes, and local tournaments where fans can watch their idols in person.

But the single most important factor in driving golf’s popularity is the game itself. Every player, from those who only manage a few rounds a year, to the member of the weekend foursome, to the professional who plays every day, is drawn to the game’s insatiable motivation to improve, to play better tomorrow than you did today. Even those who profess to ‘only play for fun or exercise’ are masking an inner pride in lowering their handicap through improved play or simply beating Saturday’s score on Sunday. It’s a quest that has swelled the ranks of golf magazines, instruction books, videos, private lessons and hours spent on the driving range or practice putting green.

It’s a game that requires confidence, humility, temperament, strategy, knowledge, gamesmanship, selective amnesia, and the highest degree of sportsmanship, honesty and integrity; a game where the player is required to penalize himself for an infraction that often only he has witnessed. Like life itself, the game is patently unfair, richly rewarding and arouses every emotion in our beings. And if you have ever been in love, you know exactly what I am talking about.

*     *     *

1

Wednesday—Preview

Jimmy Autry had been the face and voice of sports in this country for nearly a generation. Whether it was the World Series, the Super Bowl, or one of the various NCAA championships, Jimmy’s soothing tones, anecdotal history, off-the-cuff statistics, and an uncanny sense for what the viewers wanted to hear and see had made him a televised institution to millions of fans.

Jimmy had left his boyish good looks and excited play-by-play coverage behind years ago and had mellowed into a graying sage with a philosophical perspective. His telecasts were often characterized by monologues that addressed social and political issues that transcended sports and he delivered them with the demeanor of a college professor lecturing his students. Although passionate about all sports, Jimmy was particularly enamored by the only one he actually played. As a two handicap golfer, he was uniquely qualified among broadcasters to relate to the pressures, challenges and quirks of the game.

To Jimmy and other golf enthusiasts, the United States Open, among all the demanding tournament golf played each year around the world, was the supreme test of the game and he covered it every year with a keen appreciation and excitement. Autry smiled at the camera now, twinkling blue eyes still visible through his wrinkled squint, the rolling expanse of a golf course visible behind him. He had just welcomed television viewers to the U.S. Open preview show and the camera zoomed in on his serious expression.

"In golf, no matter how many tournaments you win; no matter how much prize money you accumulate, if you haven’t won one of the four majors your career is labeled a failure. It isn’t fair, of course, but it’s like the NFL quarterback who’s never led his team to the Super Bowl or the perennial baseball All-Star who’s never appeared in a World Series. Winning one of those events often defines a career. Winning more than one can make you immortal.

Of the four golfing majors the U.S. Open is viewed as the most prestigious, although the other three have their own storied histories and heroes. The reason for this elevation is twofold: first, the Open is truly that, half of its 156 entrants are filled from thousands of eager hopefuls, with a handicap of 1.4 or less, who qualify via local and regional tournaments. This includes Tour professionals who have failed to qualify via the many performance exemptions that fill the balance of the field such as being one of the past 10 U.S. Open champions, past 5 winners of the Masters, British Open or PGA Championships, top 60 players from the World Ranking, etc. Secondly, the courses chosen for each year’s Open are among the best in the country, ‘enhanced’ by the USGA to make them worthy of the tournament’s tradition of being the toughest test of golf possible."

His preamble completed, Autry broke into a wide smile, but his tone remained professorial. As he began to speak again, dramatic music rose softly in the background and a cavalcade of U.S. Open champions rolled across the screen: a smiling Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan’s one iron shot at Merion in 1950, Arnold Palmer throwing his cap at Cherry Hills in 1960, Jack Nicklaus’s first of four U.S. Open crowns at Oakmont in 1962, an exhausted Ken Venturi victorious at Congressional in 1964, Johnny Miller’s final round 63 at Oakmont in 1973, a toothy Tiger Woods kissing the trophy after a record twelve under par at Pebble Beach in 2000.

"Yes, the Open is physically demanding and mentally challenging, testing the nerves and stamina of the 156 best players in the world who are gathered here this week in Northern Virginia for the start of the tournament. Our long-time analyst and former U.S. Open champion Mike Stewart is here with us on the eve of the tournament and has his own perspective on this year’s field. Mike?"

A former Tour pro, Stewart had been plagued by debilitating shoulder and wrist problems and retired from competitive golf the year after he won the U.S. Open a decade ago. A straight-shooter as a player, Stewart applied that physical characteristic to his announcing style, frequently criticizing player’s judgment, choice of clubs, strategy and execution. With a ruddy complexion, mane of gray hair and penetrating eyes, the bitterness of Stewart’s premature retirement still lingered in his expression.

"Yes, Jimmy, the field is jam-packed with talent as always but there are several players who have my attention as prospective winners here. The first has to be young Gary Arnold who won the Masters earlier this year, signaling perhaps the beginning of a fabulous career at age twenty-two. He’s on a fast track to stardom and this week could be an important second step in his quest to be the best ever. Then there’s last year’s champion, Larry Demaret, who’s been playing very well and whose tee to green precision is well suited to a U.S. Open course that demands accuracy. My dark horse favorite is Ian Crowe, the Scottish standout who has dominated the European Tour this year and seems poised for a breakthrough here on American soil."

And what about this unusual choice of the Braddock Road Golf Club here in Northern Virginia, as this year’s course?

Well, it’s certainly not as famous as say, Pebble Beach or Oakmont, but they’ve done an excellent job of bringing it into U.S. Open conditions. They’ve lengthened the course to over 7,300 yards and lowered it to a par seventy by changing two par fives to par fours. The fairways are very tight and the rough is truly Open-class, six inches of tough tall fescue grass and a guaranteed loss of at least a stroke if you find your way there. The greens are comparatively small and make difficult targets. Plus, they’ve been rolled and cut to be exceedingly quick. This will be an excellent test of golf this week.

The camera switched back to the host.

Thanks, Mike. It should indeed be an interesting week. But before we go, a few thoughts to consider.

Autry stared intently at the camera. Time for one of his storied lectures.

"Some critics of the PGA have characterized Tour golf as an elitist sport played by arrogant, self-absorbed millionaires, but the facts paint a much different picture. Unlike other professional sports, there are no guaranteed contracts in golf that compensate the player regardless of how he performs. If you don’t make the cut on Friday you go home without a dime. And if you’re not among the top 150 money winners at the end of the year, you have to go back to Qualifying school and compete for your Tour card all over again. Try applying that criteria to the NBA or the NFL.

To continue the contrast, the cost of a ticket here this week is a mere thirty dollars a day. Compare that to the cost of a seat to watch an NFL game, if you can get one. In golf, a healthy portion of each week’s revenues go to local charities. In fact, the PGA donates more to charity every year than the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball combined. Finally, in golf there are no walls or security guards separating players from fans; here you can walk alongside your favorites, watch them perform close up, and experience their emotions first hand. And when their round is over most Tour players hang around talking with the fans and signing autographs. For free! That doesn’t sound elitist or arrogant to me."

His lecture completed, Autry smiled at the camera.

And so the stage is set for the opening round tomorrow: the best players in the world, a challenging golf course, and as much drama as a Shakespearean play. Every contestant will be trying to fulfill his golfing destiny this week. For all but one the results will be a bitter disappointment that will carve its own scar in that player’s career. But for the survivor, and that’s what the winner of a U.S. Open is, a survivor, it is the greatest achievement in the game and adding your name to the trophy alongside Anderson, Jones, Hogan, Nicklaus and Woods. For a golfer there is no greater honor.

*     *     *

2

Thursday—Opening Day

Jimmy Autry smiled at the camera, his gray hair immaculately coiffed, his blue blazer sporting the USGA logo. The T.V. network buildup to the tournament had been going on all week and now it was show time. The players had been on the course since the first tee times at 8:00 this morning and television coverage would continue until the last foursome completed its round near dusk. As was his custom on opening day, Autry’s introduction had to do with the course itself.

Holding the Open at a small, private country club like Braddock Road is unusual; the tournament normally played at a prestigious, more well-established course. Credit for bringing the Open here goes to William Stark, the senior Senator from Virginia, who is a member of the club, and William Trottingham, a distinguished D.C. lawyer, who is also a member and on the board of the USGA. The Braddock Road members gave up their course for six months while the USGA spent millions of dollars in ‘improvements’ to transform the course into an ‘Open-ready’ test. How would you characterize what’s been done to the course, Mike?

Mike Stewart smiled at the question, having walked the course all week to gain a perspective on what conditions the players would face.

"Well, Jimmy, in addition to drastically reducing the width of the fairways, most only twenty yards wide, the rough has grown into an ankle-deep hell, and they’ve rolled and double-cut the greens so they are incredibly fast. Today’s pin placements could be described as ‘easy’ by comparison to what we’ll see later in the week and last night’s rain has softened the greens so we’ll see more daring approach shots. The final element here is the infamous ‘Braddock Wind’ which can howl from any direction and raise the scoring considerably. But the wind is silent today and the conditions should allow a number of sub-par scores. I’m looking forward to seeing how the world’s best golfers handle these challenging conditions."

Thanks, Mike. The only disadvantage to playing the Open here at Braddock Road will be the absence of our old friend the MetLife blimp. The golf course is directly in the flight path for Dulles airport and the airlines frown on having to dodge blimps when they take off or land. Plus, the infamous Braddock Wind that Mike mentioned is predicted to make an appearance later this week and from what I’m told it would wreak havoc with our friend Snoopy. So, other than not being able to enjoy some of the spectacular views afforded by the blimp, we have settled in, ready to report the action, drama and excitement of the U. S. Open.

*     *     *

Good shot, Rick, my caddie says as my shot settles into the middle of the green on the second hole. This deceptively difficult par four here at The Road has been lengthened by adding a new tee box back behind the first green, while the trio of bunkers that guarded the smallish green have all been joined together, making the tough uphill approach shot even more hazardous. The inherent beauty of the hole is that the elevated green masks the ferocious winds that often roar in from the west, their force hidden to the unsuspecting player here in the valley below. Shots that most believe are true often wind up short of the green or go bounding down the steep slope behind it.

I know all this because The Road was where I first picked up a golf club when I was eighteen years old. I’ve played hundreds of rounds on this course and it’s where I discovered my passion for the game. My name is Rick Kelly and although The Road has been enhanced by the USGA, the practice rounds I’ve played this week have shown me how much remains the same as when I played here as a teenager.

As I reach the crest of the hill I see that my ball is a mere fifteen feet below the pin. I repair my ball mark on the green and squat behind the pin, seeing the subtle right-to-left downhill break imbedded in my memory. When it’s my turn I go through my pre-putt routine and settle in over the ball. In the back of my mind, as it is on every shot, is the fear that my condition will strike.

My condition is an uncontrollable spasm in my arms and hands, a jolt like I’ve grabbed onto an electric fence. Over the past year or so my symptoms have gotten worse and, despite batteries of tests and a host of specialists, the medical community has admitted they just aren’t clear about the cause. They’ve prescribed a series of medications that tend to put me into a fog, so I find that I can only play with a clear head when I’m off my med’s as I am today.

In most instances my condition gives me no warning, like the shot I mis-hit over thirteen green this morning, managing to recover with a great chip and six inch tap-in putt. But sometimes I feel a pre-spasm tingling from my neck down my shoulders and into my arms.

That’s what I feel now so I back away from the putt, take a deep breath and re-examine the path I know the ball will travel. I repeat my pre-putt routine and release my breath as a final step in relaxing, then I strike the putt. The minute it leaves the putter’s face I know it’s true and, sure enough, it glides down the slick slope, turns sharply left and disappears into the cup. It’s a birdie and I’m under par after eleven holes in the U.S. Open.

Tee times for the first two rounds of the Open involve one half of the field playing the back nine first on Thursday, then finishing on the front. I’m in that group today and have already negotiated the back side in even par. Tomorrow we’ll all switch starting nines and reverse tee times; those of us who started late today will start early tomorrow and vice-versa.

I was in the fifth group off the back nine early this afternoon and the crowds were sparse as there are no favorites in my foursome. As I walk off the second green my caddy, Tommy, gives me a fist bump and I receive mumbled congratulations from the other three members of my foursome. I start the short walk towards the third tee.

When I first joined the Tour right out of college my idol was Arnold Palmer. Arnie and television changed the game and made it the wildly popular sport it is today. I never tried to emulate Arnie’s swing, that controlled lash of fury propelled by arms like those of a blacksmith, but over time I’ve tried to duplicate his perspective on the game. Arnie knew that we weren’t just a bunch of professionals competing amongst ourselves, but that we provided entertainment for millions of fans and he played to those fans. His ability to turn his concentration on and off was incredible and between shots he was a convivial, exciting, funny friend of the gallery. He talked to them, joked with them, shared a secret smoke with them as he strode the fairways, hitching his pants and becoming a legend, an icon, the game’s unofficial ambassador.

I will never be the super-star that Arnie is but I’ve always tried to treat the fans like he does. They are the reason I get a paycheck. Hey, how you guys doing? I say to a father and teenage son standing near the third tee.

The father nods and smiles and I toss my golf ball to the kid. Here you go, son, I say, shooting him a wink. The kid gives me a toothy grin and the father shakes my hand and wishes me luck. I doubt he’s ever heard of me.

The third hole here at The Road was always one of my favorites. Back in the day it was a comparatively short par five and, of course, those were the times when I could whale the hell out of the ball, so the hole was always a good birdie possibility. Today, however, it’s a longer par four and I’m at least twenty-five to forty yards shorter off the tee. The rough on