My Father, the Golfer (Draft)

I was one of those girls blessed with a family who loves sports. We played a lot of sports growing up, tennis, badminton, bowling, etc. But there's no contest about it, my Dad's ultimate favorite sport, is golf.

We were also lucky enough to have belonged to a club with a wonderful junior golf program. The year my dad was assigned to be Jungolf Chairman, was the year I started playing golf. Our summers were spent under the sun, getting terrible farmer's tans, and perfecting our golf swings. My dad would spend afternoons with us, coaching, teaching us the rules, and... It was through golf, that he taught me a lot about honesty, punctuality, integrity, well, about life.

Here's a list of things my dad taught me, through his favorite sport. Sort of an "All I really need to know, I learned through golf" list.

1. Make sure you have enough golf balls, keep track of your things, and your score. Be responsible for yourself.
   
2. Always be punctual. Being late can cause you to miss your tee time and be disqualified from the tournament.
3. Always tell the truth. Even if there was no one around to see that you had missed your one-foot putt.
4. Always mind the people around you and be considerate of other golfers. Golf is a game of etiquette, who goes first, who goes next, it's actually a very polite sport.
5. Pay attention to the details. Check your score, sign your score card, and drop it in the drop box.
6. Practice makes perfect. You will never become a good golfer unless you work at it.
   
7. There's such a thing as a gracious winner AND a gracious loser. It's not always winning or losing that matters, but how you act when you do, win or lose.
   
8. Last but not the least, golf is a game of new beginnings. There's always the next shot, the next hole, the next game. Leave the bad shots behind, take a practice swing, and move on.

My father is truly an accomplished golfer. He has won many golf tournaments, made hole in ones, represented the country, and even brought home a car. Matter of fact, one of my favorite father-daughter moments was when as partners, we won the Junior Senior golf tournament, the tournament held at the end of every summer where a junior golfer is paired with a senior. I'll never forget that triumph.

Tomorrow, my father is fighting for the title of Senior Club Championship of the club, which is a yearly tournament only played by the best in each division. He will be playing against Mr. Ochiai who was the number two seed. It'll be a match play, meaning they're playing one on one, and each hole basically counts as a point. Today, I watched him play for that honor and I saw how hard he fought against Tito Clifford Celdran, one of the best senior golfers at the club. But today, today, was a victory in itself. I saw how he kept his cool, stayed focused, and never gave up. It was only later in the afternoon that he admitted to me how nerve-wracking the experience actually was.

I'm praying that my father will win, because I know how hard he's practiced and how much joy golf brings him. But whether he wins or loses, he will have been glad for the chance to play and he will have enjoyed himself. And in the end, if you win or lose this year, there really is, always the next time.