Jones reflects on the fast and furious ’15

By |  December 4, 2015 0 Comments

s_jonesI have recently been asked to be a guest speaker at a few different events. First was the Virginia GCSA Fall Conference. About a week later I was asked to return to Kansas University, my alma mater, to speak to two journalism classes and then sit in on some networking roundtable events with the students. And just last week I was invited to an early-season practice to speak to the varsity boys basketball team at Mulvane (Kan.) High School.

For the VGCSA, I gave a little background on the rich history of Golfdom magazine, and then gave some “behind-the-scenes” accounts of a few of our recent cover stories. That got a good discussion going, and I even came away with a few great ideas for 2016 cover stories.

For the kids at Kansas University and the kids on the Mulvane basketball team, I just spoke off the cuff about my experiences at both places.

The boys basketball team was easily the most ironic of my speaking invitations. Yes, I graduated high school from there, and I was on the basketball team. But it’s not like I hold any scoring records for the team. Actually, the towel boy may have gotten more playing time than I did my senior year.

There was one recurrent theme with the KU kids and the Mulvane High kids: enjoy the moment.

I told the kids at both KU and at Mulvane High that even though it might seem like school is dragging out, in retrospect it goes by fast. All those minutes warming the bench for the Mulvane Wildcats (minutes I could have been playing) definitely went by fast.

My four years at Kansas University were agonizing at times. I remember one semester for journalism school I had to come up with a new story every week about the Natural History Museum. I almost went mad.

Now that I’m older? That went by in the blink of an eye.

Just like this last year did, I’m now realizing. Maybe I need to take my own advice.

Time is moving faster than ever, just like my parents used to tell me when I was a kid. And now I’m the parent, telling my kids the same things that I didn’t listen to when I was young. History repeats itself.

In 2015 I took 24 business trips. The Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship… the Golf Industry Show, the Golfdom Summit, the Sports Turf Managers Association conference… Pinehurst, Olympic Club, Bandon Dunes…

It all went by so fast. I met so many cool people, saw so many amazing things.

Even more exciting than the business trips were the family trips. I took the family for a week to San Francisco, and this fall I took both kids golfing and both kids fishing, together, for the first time. Evey is 8, Boyd is 4. I didn’t know if Boyd was old enough to be out there on the golf course or trusted with a sharp fish hook.

Old enough? He might actually be the ideal age. The +4 I shot at the par-three course with both kids in tow might have been the most enjoyable round of my life. The two of them sitting together on a rock, casting into the water? One of my best fishing trips, even though our only catch was a Styrofoam cup.

In this month’s cover story we celebrate the year that was. I hope you’ll agree that 2015 was a great year. I certainly enjoyed it! And I realize that yes… it went by much too fast.

I can’t get back those minutes that Coach Barker left me to warm the bench in 1996, but I definitely plan on making the most of the minutes I get in 2016.

This is posted in Columns

About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 25-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association. Jones can be reached at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.


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