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A story about —
Erin's Tree — 5th Hole on the Leisure World Executive Golf Course
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Erin never played Golf until after she retired. We moved down to the University of North Carolina in 1973, where I returned to school for a year. We had a Town House on the 14th Tee of the Chapel Hill Country Club. But that's another story. Being that close to Golf and with me playing at least a few holes everyday, Erin decided she would take some lessons from the young teaching Pro, Eddie. I don't know whether it was Golf or the teacher, but Erin fell in love with the game.
When we returned to the Kansas City area, and moved into the Condo at Raintree in Olathe, she joined the ladies groups at St. Andrews and Overland Park Golf Clubs. There happened to be another young teaching pro at the OP Club. He was red haired, and Erin used to say that all he needed was a straw hat and a straw to chew on and he would be the perfect Alabama farmer. But, he knew how to keep Erin's enthusiasm for Golf at a high pitch. She played a lot of Golf, maybe not like a Pro, but she enjoyed every minute of it.
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| During the last few years that I worked we took many trips to Golf Resorts around the Country. Our favorite partners in these outings were Glendinne and Gene. Gene was still in practice as a Family Physician and Glenndine had retired after working for several years as a Public Health Nurse on Erin's staff. We had a lot of fun in Texas on Mustang Island and in northern Arkansas. Memories that will always be there!
With my retirement looming on the horizon, we bought a Holiday Rambler Travel Trailer. This helped in our Golf pursuits. I had a Rolodex with 1000 cards, each one with a Golf Course on it. I had this organized by Highway so that we could always look down the Highway to the next Course we were going to play. We used this quite well during the first couple of years after retirement. Erin kept her Travel Books beginning in 1979, and described the courses, the green fees, what we had for lunch, how good that Rob Roy tasted on a hot day, but she never recorded the scores. The score was not important, it was just the playing that counted!
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The Travel Trailer made our Golfing Travel much better.
This beautiful site was at Holiday Island near Eureka Springs in Northern Arkansas.
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| Erin continued to play after we moved to our permanent winter quarters at Val Vista Village in Mesa, AZ. I began to have problems with my balance and also with a Valley Fever infection and my Golf became less important, but Erin just enjoyed more and more! When we moved to Leisure World in 1986, she was really excited to have her own Golf Course! She let me have the big course, but the Executive Course was hers! Her Golf partners, Vi and Betty and Carmen, were such good friends and made her enjoyment of the game grow with each round. And, this brings us back to the theme of this story.
Erin's nemesis was the shot across the lake on the 5th hole. It is a beautiful little hole and really poses little threat, but Erin couldn't get across the water! I told her that she should always use a new ball when on that hole. I explained that when you are faced with a difficult shot, you should use a good ball to get a good carry. The next time she approached this daunting Tee shot, she chose a bright new Pinnacle. She hit the ball, it hit the water, skipped out and went right up to the edge of the green. For the next 9 rounds of golf that same ball did the same thing! She would come home and with great joy hold up the Pinnacle and say, “It did it again!” On the eleventh time, it failed and disappeared in the water.
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| After Erin's death on September 21, 2002, her friends in Leisure World and around the country made donations to the Leisure World Memorial Tree Fund and the Hospice of the Valley. Funds were collected to permit the planting of a very nice tree on her favorite, the 5th hole of the Leisure World Executive Course. In fact, so much was donated that they were able to plant two trees. One to guard each side of the fairway and to delineate the path across the small lake. The first tree, in the picture at the right, is a beautiful Australian Bottle Tree on the west side of the fairway. On the east side is a Eucalyptus that is equally pretty, though not quite as large.
On Wednesday afternoon, March 5, 2003, at 3:00 PM, there was an appropriate ceremony to accompany the planting of Erin's Tree. The location of the tree was chosen by Fidel,the Greenskeeper. Orienne Fender, who Chairs the Memorial Tree Fund, made all of the arrangements. We invited friends from inside and outside Leisure World to celebrate with us.Carmen and Jerry came down from Kansas City.
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| We gathered around the tree and remembered some of the favorite stories about Erin and her golf. We planted a few special items under the tree, such as a New Pinnacle Golf Ball and a few tees. Remembering that Erin always enjoyed a cool one after a round of golf on a hot day, we added a special Golf Ball that had been mounted on a bottle stopper. This was a creation by one of Carmen's close friends, Jim Kibbe, down in Shell Knob, Missouri. We had planned to put the stopper in a bottle of Scotch, but we decided the Scotch (Curty Stark, of course) might leak out and damage the tree. With second thought, we planted the stopper and brought the bottle home. So, when you're in the neighborhood, drop by and we'll have a short one for old time's sake! I also thought that I might "feed the lake" one more Pinnacle Golf Ball in Erin's honor. I tried to throw it into the lake, but found I was a little out of shape for throwing, it hit the water and jumped out and right up to the edge of the green!
It was great fun! Erin would have enjoyed it!
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