America Wake up and Play Golf

By Peter Edward Baumann

Good golf is a state of mind (Arnold Palmer).

This book examines how running golf software on the brain is a powerful tool for living well and succeeding in life. An amusing and insightful journey into the world of golf, this book explores a simple question: What can golf teach us about ourselves and others?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Apr 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781490772349

Peter Edward Baumann

As president of Probe Golf, Baumann has manufactured custom drivers and putters for some of the biggest names in golf—including Arnold Palmer, Larry Laoretti, Chi Chi Rodriguez, and Gary Player. He was part owner of Lake Shastina Golf Resort. While there, he won his Men’s Club Championship nine times in twelve years, and he tied the course record, shooting 65 on the Par 72 Championship course. Baumann lives in Ashland, Oregon, where he is father to two sons.

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Copyright 2016 Peter Edward Baumann.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-7233-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-7235-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-7234-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016905817

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CONTENTS

Prologue

Foreword

Part One - The Beginning

Part Two – The Separation

Part Three – Together At Last

Part Four – Heart Attack

Good-Bye, Patti.

America, Wake Up And Play Golf

Prologue

June 1, 1961

My dad was driving me to my first game of golf on my 12th birthday! Little did I know that today would be the most important day of my life! In the next 55 years I would learn the lesson of a lifetime. What was that lesson? I would learn that the game of golf was probably the most important way to learn about people, who they were, what they believed in, whether they could be trusted, whether they were honest, whether they had integrity, whether they had a temper, whether they would persevere toward a goal when most others would quit, whether they were people of character!

I learned that the game of golf was the most accurate lie detector in existence on the planet, using what many people refer to as body language! It is what I learned from my dad starting that day that has propelled me through life, and taught me how to read the true character of everyone I ever met, on a golf course and off a golf course!

It is what AMERICA WAKE UP AND PLAY GOLF will teach everyone who reads it, starting with you; how to read the true character of all the people you meet today, tomorrow, and during the rest of your life, so you can make better decisions about your future, who you will spend your time with in life, and who you will steer clear of in the future, for your own protection! After reading this book, you will graduate from the GOLF SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS with an A+!

Foreword

July 29, 2004

I was visiting my parents on July 29 of 2004 in Riverside, California. My father, United States Naval Commander Edward William Baumann (Retired), and my mother, Dorothy Anderson Baumann, were watching television in their living room while I cooked dinner for them in their kitchen.

As I was warming up the mashed potatoes and gravy, I heard a voice booming from the TV in the next room. After hearing two sentences, I felt a chill run down my back and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck!

I turned down the heat on the stove. I walked into the living room and sat down next to my dad on the couch. There was an African American man standing at the podium at the Democratic National Convention on the TV, speaking to the American people.

My parents and I listened until the speech ended. I then turned to my father and said, Dad, that man is going to run for President in 2008, he is going to win by a landslide, and then he is going to do his best to kill the American way of life!

My father asked, Why do you say that, Peter?

Because you taught me to play golf forty-four years ago, and more importantly, you taught me to learn to read the body language and the true character of people I meet and with whom I play golf, during an 18-hole round of golf. Remember?

I remember, replied the Commander.

"Dad, for over 50 years I have used that ability on the golf course to meet and go into business with many people over the decades. I learned how to pick future business partners faster in four hours on the golf course than I could have learned talking with them over a conference table for six months! More importantly, I learned how to spot danger in any person whom I join on a golf course!

"That man who just finished talking at the podium is the Devil incarnate. And what concerns me is that he could sell ice to a village of Eskimos! The American voter will buy what he is selling.

The American voter is not equipped to see through his words, and will fall for his false promises!" (The eight years from 2008 through 2016 has proven the accuracy of those statements of mine in 2004.)

The elections of 2016 are a turning point for America! If Americans do not wise up and make better decisions about who they will elect to lead America starting immediately, even before the November elections, America’s future will be beyond hope!

I am saying that Obama is not finished ruining America!

The White House under Obama has been one huge disaster after another, and Obama is not finished in his efforts to kill what America has stood for over the decades. Obama has relieved Jimmy Carter of the title of being the worst President America has ever had to endure. If Americans don’t learn how to read between the lines when they listen to future potential Presidential candidates, they will continue to choose poorly, and our country will suffer.

On July 1, 2014, I sent an email to Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, expressing my surprise that O’Reilly had said over and over again that he was perplexed about the poor decisions President Obama had made over the previous five years! Mr. O’Reilly continues to be perplexed, as do many of his associates in the press, because they have never learned how to read the true character of a man.

I wonder if any reader of this letter knows what kind of golf President Obama plays when he is on the golf course. Does he merely play for fun? Does he play golf to reduce stress? Those are two very good reasons to play golf.

Or does he play business golf…….or political golf, wherein he intentionally wants to learn about the true character of those within his foursome on the golf course? I doubt that he plays the latter. From television news videos I have seen over the years, he does not appear to take his golf seriously. Playing by the rules of golf does not seem to be a priority either.

In my book LOVE WAS NOT ENOUGH, I suggested that any and all politicians who run for office, especially for the Presidency of the United States, be required to enter into a golf tournament wherein they play for their own money against each other, and where voters are encouraged to watch that tournament to learn about the true character of each contestant.

The game’s HANDICAP SYSTEM would make sure the tournament was fair for all concerned (Unless a contestant lies about his handicap, right?…..in which case the question of honesty and integrity would already be answered!)

I guarantee you that the American voter would learn who perseveres in the face of adversity, who is honest, who has integrity, who has a temper, etc.

In this book, America Wake Up and Play Golf | How Golf Can Save the American Way of Life, I will show every American how and why golf is the Greatest Game Ever Played, and how it can teach all of us how to spot danger coming at us in the form of promises from would be political leaders.

Before the next national election, we have to tolerate Obama’s incompetence and deceitful practices for the rest of 2016. And believe me; he still has a few more perplexing surprises up his sleeve before we get him out of office!

PART ONE - The Beginning

Wednesday, June 1, 1960

It is my 12th birthday! My father, United States Navy lieutenant Commander Edward William Baumann told me at dinner that night that he had a special surprise for me the upcoming Saturday for my birthday. I asked him what it was, but all he said was, "You’ll find out Saturday morning. We leave at 6:00 A.M.

Saturday, June 4, 1960

Dad and I left our house in Ewa Beach, HI and started driving in our family’s 1958 Dodge station wagon toward the Barber’s Point Naval Air Station five miles away, through the sugar cane fields. Our family had moved from Canton, Ohio to Hawaii the end of June, 1959, one week before Hawaii became the 50th State.

As we approached the West Gate on the base, the guard came out of the guard shack and walked up to my Dad’s window. When he noticed my Dad’s officer insignia he stood at attention and saluted. My Dad, not in uniform, did not salute back. The guard waved us through the gate, and we drove another mile to the base PX, or the Post Exchange. Dad said, Wait here, Pete. I’ll only be a few minutes.

Dad walked into the PX. A few minutes later he came out the front door carrying a small canvas golf bag with a few golf clubs in it. He opened the back gate of the Dodge and put the golf bag inside. He jumped back in the Dodge and we drove off.

Pete, today I want to introduce you to the game of golf, the greatest game ever played.

I thought baseball was America’s greatest game, Dad!

You have played baseball since you were eight, Pete. It is America’s greatest team sport. Golf is different. It is played by yourself, against yourself, against the golf course, and when you play in a tournament, it is played against other golfers as well.

We drove into a parking lot surrounded by trees, and I saw golfers carrying their golf bags over to a small shack surrounded by grass.

This is the new Barber’s Point nine-hole golf course that was just built earlier this year. We have a tee time for 7:30 A.M.

For the next two hours Dad and I walked the first nine holes of the course, hitting our golf balls with difference golf clubs as Dad showed me what to use on each shot. On one hole he gave me a small booklet of the United States Golf Association’s RULES OF GOLF, and told me to read it later that night from cover to cover.

It is the Rules of Golf that separate the game of golf from every other game you will ever play, Peter. And it is these rules that every golfer must learn if he is to learn the right way to play this game. No one else is responsible for how you play each shot. It is up to you to play each shot by the rules. If you break any rule, there are penalties, and you must call the penalty on yourself. This is a game of trust, and everyone you play with should always be able to trust you to play by the rules. It separates you from everyone else in life, and you will want to be known as a young man who can always be trusted to play golf by the rules. When you are older, you will want to be known as a man of character, a man to be trusted and respected. Remember that, Peter.

Dad reminded me of our pastor at Church when he said that. It was as if he was telling me about the rules of life, and how to live my life by life’s rules.

Little did I know at the time that summer morning, but I realized many years later how the game of golf would change my life for the next 55 years!

That 4th day of June, 1960 was an amazing day. It went by too fast in my recollection. We finished the nine holes, had hotdogs and a Coke for lunch, and then played the nine holes a second time. I don’t remember what I scored that day. It was a lot of strokes.

Dad had rented what he called a half set of golf clubs, two woods, five irons, and a putter at the PX. He told me that the man at the PX would put my name on the rented set, and he would have it ready for me to rent every Saturday if I wanted to continue playing golf.

He had bought me two sleeves of Jato golf balls, six balls in total. I learned in a very short time how to look for lost balls on the sides of each golf hole when I was walking to my shots.

The rest of that summer I asked my Dad every Friday night if he was going to be able to take me to the golf course the next day. He always said, Of course!

Dad would drop me off inside the gate at Barber’s Point every Saturday morning around 7:00 A.M. I would walk to the PX, pick up my canvas bag of clubs, walk to the golf course, and walk 36 to 72 holes every day! I would tee, the pick up the bag and walk down the left rough line or the right rough line and look for lost balls.

I continued playing Little League Baseball with my buddies on the team, but I got three of them interested in playing golf as well! We had our own four man tournaments every Saturday. I pretended I was Sam Snead. My buddy Tom was always Arnold Palmer. Billy was Tommy Armour, and Bobby was Billy Casper. We would play for ten cents per nine holes, and another ten cents for the 18! What they called a ten cent Nassau bet.

By the end of that summer I had filled a large trash can at home with used golf balls that I had found on the golf course. Those six new Jato golf balls Dad had bought for me were the only new golf balls I ever used. I don’t think I bought any new golf balls for many years!

One night in September, 1960, I asked my Dad at dinner if he would buy me my own full set of golf clubs. He replied, When you break 90 for 18 holes!

I didn’t have to ask if I had to play Summer Rules when breaking 90. That was a given. Summer Rules always meant playing by the rules, because I had learned that was the only way to play the game of golf. Two Saturdays later I shot 88 the first 18 holes I played with my baseball buddies! I brought the scorecard home with me when Dad picked my up that night.

He looked at it carefully, then handed it to me, and handed me a pencil, and then said, Sign your scorecard to make it official. I signed it, and then Dad said, Let’s run out to the PX and buy you your first set of golf clubs tomorrow morning!

The next morning we drove to Barber’s Point, went to the PX, and looked at a full set of Sam Snead Blue Ridge irons, woods, and an Acushnet two sided brass putter. We also picked up a nice leather light blue carry bag.

I felt like a million bucks!

January, 1961

My Dad and I were driving to Schofield Barracks Naval Air Station on Oahu to meet his Navy buddy lieutenant Commander Robert Callahan to play its golf course for 18 holes. The green fee was $1.25 per man. Before teeing it up, Dad introduced me to Mr. Norm Tibedoh, the local golf professional. Mr. Tibedoh was giving me my first golf lesson that morning. I had never taken a professional golf lesson before. My Dad had been a pretty good golfer, and had taught me the basics. The first thing Mr. Tibedoh did was look at my grip, which had been an interlocking grip. He moved the small finger on my right hand out from between my first and middle fingers on my left hand and overlapped the left-hand first finger. That is called the Vardon Grip, named after Harry Vardon from England. I played with the Vardon Grip for the next 36 years!

June, 1962

Our family moved to San Diego, California after my Dad received orders from the Navy. My younger brother, Bruce, who was two years and one day younger (DOB June 2, 1950), was learning to play golf himself, and we both joined the Junior Golf Association of San Diego that summer.

I started as a Freshman at Mt. Miguel High School in Lemon Grove (eastern San Diego) that September, 1962. I played baseball at Mt. Miguel, and not golf on the golf team. Bruce and I competed in the San Diego Junior Golf tournaments when it was not Baseball season.

September, 1963

Our family moved to Pt. Loma (western San Diego) that month, and we started going to Pt. Loma High School. I played again on the baseball team, lettering Varsity Baseball the next three years. Bruce played Junior Golf all years, but my baseball coach would not allow his baseball players to touch a golf club during the baseball season. The two swings are entirely different.

One Saturday I played hooky from baseball practice to enter the Junior Golf tournament in northern San Diego County. Bruce finished the tournament ahead of me, and then came back to the 18th tee to watch me finish the last hole. As I was lining up my second shot into the green a 410 yards Par 4, Bruce asked me how I was doing. I par this hole for a 74, I replied.

If you make par, you finish second.

I do? What distance do you think I have to the green?

Bruce replied, About 160 yards.

That was my 7-iron. I pulled out my 3-iron, and lined up the shot.

Bruce yelled, Bro, that’s too much club!

I know. I hit the 3 perfectly, flew over the green into the club house, and out of bounds!

I hit a second ball from the fairway, as required by the rules, onto the green, and made a 7!

As Bruce and I walked off the course I explained to him that if I had made par and finished second, my baseball coach would have seen my name in the Sports Page in the San Diego Union the next day and would have known I had played hooky from baseball practice. I have too much respect for Mr. Fristrom to let him know I lied to him.

June, 1965

I finished playing baseball at Pt. Loma High School. I had been offered a position on the farm team of the Baltimore Orioles at graduation, but decided to go to college, majoring in Business Management. I had worked for Sea World in San Diego almost full-time during high school, and a Business Management diploma from college would help me with a career in business.

Little did I know how golf would play an important part in my business career.

September, 1965

I started my first year of college at the University of California, San Diego, or UCSD, in La Jolla, California. Although the golf team did not get together for college tournament until the Winter Quarter, I made it a point to seek out the college team coach that Fall Quarter, to make sure I knew when tryouts would start.

The Fall Quarter I joined a PE Class that included weight building. I weighed 176 pounds that first quarter. After three months of weight- building and living in the dorm, (and eating the cafeteria food for three months) I weighed 210 pounds when the golf season rolled around!

The first day of qualifying for the golf team at UCSD, I was so tight in my arm muscles that I had trouble taking the club back from address! But the first day I shot 74 and was tied for the lead! The previous year’s #1 player on the team, Rudi Murillo, also shot 74.

The second day of tryouts I shot another 74, while Rubi shot 72, even par. The coach, a