Keeping up with the Jones: A lot to be proud about

Photo: Seth Jones

I am writing today in the middle of a short golf getaway to Southern Indiana. Yesterday, we played Victoria National in Newburgh, Ind., and today we’ll play the Dye Course at French Lick Resort. It’s been good to act normal for a few days with some friends from Ohio and Minnesota.

Tuning out the news for even a short time has been a breath of fresh air. The drive from Evansville, Ind., to French Lick was about 90 minutes and beautiful, winding through the Hoosier National Forest and crossing over Patoka Lake. My classic rock channel was turned up loud. I enjoyed scoping out the various antique malls and unusual fall/Halloween decorations of the houses along the way. From the driver’s seat, you can’t tell there’s a spooky pandemic afoot.

But, you sure can tell there’s an election about to happen. If yard signs are any indicator of how a state will vote, you can count Missouri and Southern Indiana in favor of President Donald Trump. Extra effort points to the landowner along I-70 in Missouri for hanging about 20 Trump signs 40 feet off the ground in the tops of the trees. I hope he had a cherry picker.

I won’t make any predictions for Election Day, but I will do some of my own cherry picking and highlight a few of the things that stand out to me that make this issue special.

There are some proud dad moments in this issue with the cover story on Jim Moore and his sons, penned by Editor Christina Herrick: a touching shoutout to Jake Payne by his son Clay in Starter; a sad story of the passing of a grandpa who supported his entire family on p. 31; and a proud dad stunned by how quickly his boys are growing up in Brendon Reaksecker in 19th Hole.

I’m a sucker for a good father/son story myself, having lost my father to cancer more than 10 years ago. I think of him often and seeing stories like these fondly remind me of him. I’m playing golf in his home state now, in the hometown of his favorite basketball player Larry Bird. I’m sure Dad was riding shotgun with me as I crossed over Patoka Lake, jamming out to classic rock, and he was the one who made me instinctively turn off the radio out of respect to the locals when I pulled up to the resort. Thank you to all the fathers and sons sharing their stories with us in this issue, and a tip of the cap to Eddie Brown.

There is also a proud women in golf theme in this issue, penned by our talented team of female editors: Herrick, Senior Editor Abby Hart and Associate Editor Sarah Webb. Golfdom’s coverage of the second annual Women in Golf event, sponsored by Bayer, begins on p. 19. And, I’ll also point out that Webb wrote an especially moving column in this issue (see p. 10), her first for the magazine, that made me proud of both her and Abby. I’ve been using the word “proud” in this column a lot, but it is the right word. I’m also proud that Golfdom is able to support Women in Golf and encourage our women readers to check in with us with their story ideas and opinions.

Last bullet and then I’m going to go see how many golf balls I lose on the Dye Course (over/under is 7) — soon, you will see a survey from Golfdom in your email inbox. Please take a few minutes to take our survey and help us create our State of the Industry report. This year, we will be donating $1 to the Wee One Foundation for every returned survey. And, it would make me proud (there’s that word again) to write a sizable check this year to the organization, in a year they haven’t been able to fundraise like they would typically.