2015 DSGO & the Triple Cities; Still the Valley of Opportunity, Hart & Faith

The Champions Tour event—the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open (DSGO) is in the Triple Cities of Binghamton, Johnson City & Endicott, New York this week. So am I, now 55, I am lucky to have three hometowns and be back where I belong and where I lived the first 17 years of my life. If you have a few minutes, let me tell you why this, the Valley of the Susquehanna River (and the Chenango River in Binghamton), is still the Valley of Opportunity, Hart and Faith.

On this, the fourth day of being back home, I set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. Up, I showered, got dressed and headed over to The Johnny Hart Memorial Christian Fellowship Breakfast, hosted by the Hart Family at the Kalurah Shrine on Dickson Street in Endicott, not far from the En-Joie Golf Course, host to the DSGO since 2007. I have always wanted to attend this breakfast and I guess today was the day for me to do so.

Isn’t it funny how things in life, at times, seemingly so disconnected in time, suddenly become focused, clear and connected again? It was a good breakfast but I couldn’t tell you what I ate. I can tell you why it was good, long after the experience, because as you know I am a note-taker, a journeying journaler for some 15 years now. A producer at the Golf Channel once called me a “golf voyager and documentarian,” and I like to quickly add that I only like to document what I voyage.

See, it’s all about me and it is all about you and once we figure that out individually then we can celebrate it collectively. Have I lost you yet?

I sat down at a table and met a couple to cherish with the names of LaVon and Skip Hausamann. His full name is Erwin Werner Hausamann Jr., that’s why they call him Skip. She was from Texas and he from Massachusetts so of course I was intrigued as to how they met and how they came to live in the Triple Cities on the Southern Tier of New York, about a three hours drive time upstate from New York City.

He was a drill sergeant in the Air Force stationed at the Lackland Air Force Base outside San Antonio, Texas. She grew up a Southern Baptist (though now a Methodist) in a small town of Rogers, Texas. Her family and her church reached out to serviceman by inviting them over for Sunday dinner. Her family invited him and though forbade somehow they connected and made a go of it. Next year they,a long with their three children and eight grandchildren, will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

My thoughts of LaVon and Skip were interrupted by “It’s a joy to be with you,” the words of Emrys Tyler, the Teaching Elder of the Ninevah Presbyterian Church giving the Invocation, one of the most inspiring invocations I ever heard.

Of course, I knew who Johnny Hart was. Growing up I religiously read his B.C. comic strip in the newspaper each day. Remember newspapers? Yeah, and the Sunday comic section? I remember his cartoon characters on site at the B.C. Open, the old regular PGA TOUR event held at En Joie Golf Course from 1971 through 2006, though the final event was held at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona due to a flooded golf course. I wanted to know more about the person, his creativity and his faith.

In his Invocation, Elder Tyler delivered on all three of my wants as he started his invocation with a Johnny Hart story. Evidently Johnny baked his favorite lemon meringue pie for a friend’s party and while delivering it he dropped it on the guy’s driveway. He grabbed a fork, knelt down and started eating the now upside down pie from the bottom side. I could feel his sense of patient presence and humor. I could visualize him making the best of a sad situation. Why wouldn’t he?

Elder Tyler then took me to where I needed to be noting that sometimes our reality in life is flipped upside down—from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from darkness to light and from where we are today to eternity. Make it so in Jesus’ name. Amen.

After tuning out for a moment or two to once again assess my upside-down life, I came back to the present moment just as Johnny Hart’s grandson, Mason Matroianni, who has been doing the comic strip now for nine years after the death of the self-described title B.C. character in life, utter that they “did not skip a beat” in the transition. I looked over and smiled at Skip and his lovely wife wondering if I had somehow skipped a beat or two in my life?

CLICK HERE for a Video Interview with Mason Mastroianni, Cartoonist, B.C. Comic Strip

Listening to Mason I could see how the comic strip kept beating along even with the sudden and unexpected death of its creator. Mason’s message was humble and direct. His grandfather was the father figure in his life and taught him everything he knew about life. Like his grandfather he is at home here in the Triple Cities and lets life come to him and then turns it around, maybe turns it right side up, sketching it back to us in prehistoric terms we can all understand. He thanked us all for honoring the memory of his grandfather.

Right then I was actively targeting him for a post-breakfast interview. Somehow, Hart’s heart and humor, compassion and creativity, was passed along and enhanced. There was inspiration there. I am an inspiration seeker.

The main show of the breakfast hour came alive with Champions Tour players Fred Funk, Loren Roberts and Mike Goodes on stage with live microphones.

Fred told the first story. Playing with Jack Nicklaus at Doral, golf’s all-time greatest player asked him to play a practice with him and Arnold Palmer the guy who popularized the game of golf. at the Masters. After eager anticipation, he did so with goose bumps, disbelief and standing ovations all day long. The 2005 PLAYERS Champion readily admitted he could only handle playing with one legend at a time. Two was too much. One at a time… makes sense…

Loren’s greatest golfing experience was partnering with Arnold Palmer in the 2007 Wendy’s Champions Skins Game. His entry ticket was being the Charles Schwab Cup Champion, Mr. Palmer’s was being the King.

If Arnold was Mr. Golf Personality & Performance, then Loren was Mr. Golf Perseverance. admittedly a late bloomer, his first win on tour came at Arnold’s Bay Hill in 1994 at age 38, twenty years after turning pro, thirteen years after getting his first tour card on his fifth attempt at Q-School. Then he properly defended his title to the extreme the next year and went on to win a total of eight times on the PGA TOUR and thiriteen times on the Champions Tour, including four Majors.

Some things in life and golf take time…

Mike Goodes is like you and me, the ultimate dreamer and late bloomer—the dream of  every aging amateur golfer. Never a golf professional or professional golfer until age 50. Maybe you have to dream to become a dream reality for others. His biggest thrill coming out on tour was finding out that the guys he was watching play golf on TV were Christians too.

We live in an upside-down world, don’t we?

As Fred Funk shared, the tour is really a traveling circus and there is a need to keep in touch with reality and stay grounded. Whether you are on the move and doing the moving or stationary with the world moving around you we all need to be grounded somehow, somewhere.

Where in our whirlwind world can we find that foundation for life?

It’s probably more of an emotional and mental challenge than a physical one in reality.

Golf is a selfish sport. Whether an amateur or a professional, if we are not playing it, we are practicing, if we are not practicing, we are thinking about it. There can be a fear of losing one’s skill, one’s talent, one’s ability to compete and succeed in golf and life. We are born, we grow, we live, we decline and then we die. How do you deal with that if you want to be in control of everything?

We all can easily get sidetracked in faith even if we were raised in a religious family was how Loren started to share his testimony of how he came to Christ. He was down and out of money, everything he owned was in his car and he missed another cut. He came back to his hotel room and got down on his knees and accepted that Jesus Christ had died for our sins.

A new perspective and prioritization in life came upon him and others who have done so.

No longer was he identified only as a golfer and the score shot that day.

Somehow the damage golf and other selfish pursuits was now minimized.

Grounded in God and the Bible somehow calmed the whirlwind of the world.

If Jesus is in our minds we can only think of one thing at a time.

We see the big picture instead of only our own smallness.

We question our personal mission in light of God’s mission for us.

If we respect God’s will and live out our faith our mission will be God’s mission.

If you can do it, it is a gift.

We don’t have to be perfect in life. Why not be as accepting, loving and compassionate to ourselves as we are to our family and friends? Why not cleanse our hearts, minds and body of fear, resentments, dishonesty and our own egotistical self.

Remember what Johnny Hart would say—”God is God and you are not.”

Why not turn ourselves upside-down?

Chaplain Tom O’Connor the Benediction noting that in a few minutes we will all go our separate ways. I had already done that when I graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1977. The theme of our prom was “We must go our separate ways.”

We do but not necessarily alone.

These are all inspiring words and thoughts that came to me during The Johnny Hart Memorial Christian Fellowship Breakfast

We can only play with one legend at a time.

We can skip through life and feel our hearts beat and our lungs breathe.

We can, as inspired by Wally Armstrong, take the Big Mulligan.

You take a mulligan in golf, why not take one in life?

Our best golf and our best life is in front of us.

The best golfer this week will win the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.

What will you win this week?

The Triple Cities—still the Valley of Opportunity, Hart & Faith.

Amen.