Memorial Day Weekend
Dear Members,
On Saturday over Memorial Day Weekend, all the board members, minus Lee (he is currently teeing it up in the first event of the PGA Tour Canada’s season), were lucky enough to play a round at Quail Hollow with our inaugural boy’s scholarship recipient, Hershal Patel.
I was pretty nervous leading up to having him out with us for a couple reasons. One of which was because I had six friends in town visiting for Memorial Day and I knew we were in for a big Friday night. Another was simply because I’d never met Hershal. What if he took it too seriously? What if he was not only a bad player, but a slow player? Essentially, I was nervous he wouldn’t embody the traits that we love here at BCCC. Thankfully, my worries were incorrect on all accounts.
First, Peter, Jack, Charlie, and I proved yet again, that while we love to “hoot with the owls,” we are also more than capable of “flying with the eagles.” Hershal definitely is too. We were set to be first off, so I told him to get to the course at 7:30. He called me at 7:15 to let me know he was there, and we pulled in about ten minutes later. We went through our introductions and gave him and his dad a hat. They live in Greensboro, so I asked him what time he’d gotten up, “4:30,” he said. His dad then quipped that Hershal had woken him up because he was so excited. Have to get in your morning routine, I guess.
Second, at the start of our range session we all realized that Hershal was a player. He told me that his goal today was to shoot 82 or better. He also mentioned that he is a member out at Tanglewood and practices for at least an hour every day. Strong work ethic. I asked him about his summer schedule, and he was elated to share that he was playing in seven (7) tournaments in July alone. While his dad doesn’t play golf, it’s fortunate that he enjoys watching it. His dad moved here from India in the 1990s and opened his own Subway. Mr. Patel’s daughter is studying to be an engineer at NC State and Hershal wants to do the same. He’s got a 3.92 GPA. Once again, strong work ethic.
Third, Hershal stepped up to the first tee and after a quick practice swing hit a beautiful fade to start us off. But most importantly, midway through the round and fresh off a bogie, Hershal said to me “this is the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course.” His attitude could not have been better. He smiled after bad swings and grinned after the good ones. He would miss a putt and power on to the next hole hoping to hole the next one. And as the round progressed, he definitely started to hole them. It felt like he had eleven putts on the back nine and after closing out with a bogie on 18 he shot a calm 78. There were plenty of butter cuts hit all day. I’ll spare you what the rest of shot, but all in all, I couldn’t have been happier with how the day went, and most importantly, who we’ve selected as our inaugural boy’s recipient.
Thank y’all so much for the support, and happy cuts.
