Snapshot of my Dad, Richard Bailey, aka “Papa Duke” (or PD for short),
Playing golf last Sunday I watched my Dad (PD) crash his 3-wheel golf caddy twice in 18 holes. The second time brought a momentary, progeny silence, after the long downhill on the card path from the elevated tee of hole 10 at Applewood Golf course in Golden. A slow downhill brake with the caddy and Dad in control, to almost the end, then the free headlong push and roll down to the fairway. Ok, there were the guard posts and the rope rails between that fairway and the path. Did my old man see them or not? Or does he see the caddy just gracefully, engineered right, just roll on through or over? Guess the outcome!
That caddy is well engineered for sure cause it took that nylon rail like a Wahoo on my buddy Todd’s fishing pole. Sorry, I can’t stop laughing! Ok, at the time I was thinking, had my Daddy’O finally lost it? And my kids, Kelsey and Jake, PD’s grand kids, are slightly stunned with the violence of the golf caddy being “taken down.” Well-used and well-corrected golf clubs are cast about like pick-up sticks, and as should be with a well-engineered caddy, the tools of ball whacking, end up close to the scene.
The hero of this story, after a chuckle, wiggle, fart, cuss, or grunt (take your pick because I can’t remember if it was some or all), walked down calmly, pulled the young and beaten golfing pugilist caddy off the ropes, adroitly re-extended the front wheel, set all upright and began collecting the newly flung clubs. And after patiently watching my old man set about cleaning up his own mess, methodically reestablishing all, with grace, I drove past with our own cart to find my own errant ball.
The second nine was, I think the best 9 holes I’ve ever played. Kelsey, my lovely daughter, started to steadily smack her ball and smile even more than she usually does. Jake, while slightly errant in his own right, got his incredible drive into lower orbit and down into the middle of the fairway. Dang, that boy was inspired as well. PD took the overall round of course, with his combination of consistency, wackiness, and constant attention to detail.
Speaking of Kelsey, as we were sharing the only motorized cart, we watched PD a bit. Earlier on, I think hole 6, Kelsey pointed out to me how PD just pushes his caddy out in front & watches ‘er go. Kelsey said, “Papa Duke is a very interesting person.” Shortly after a push, the cart approached a tree without human guidance, decided to slowly climb the trunk and even slower, tip over. “That’s my Dad,” I said.
Yup, that’s Papa Duke.
