{Editor’s Note – Golf is truly the great unifier! Lead Staff Writer Matt Tevsh and I were recently paired with the amazing father-son duo of Mike and Noah Giesdahl during our first round of the season at Wolf Creek in Mesquite, Nevada. The combination of a charismatic course and camaraderie filled the Nevada sky as we got to reacquaint ourselves with our games after a four-month break and acquaint ourselves with our playing partners. Unbeknownst to Matt and me, Mike and Noah were the true observers of the group as Mike emailed me the following story to commemorate our five hours together. The feature is not meant to prop Matt and me up, but instead it shows the importance of the time-honored phrase, “It’s more important who you play with than how you play.” ENJOY!!!}
By Mike Gjesdahl
It’s a relationship that’s easy to overlook. I wonder why.
It’s not as primary as with our parents or our spouse, of course. And it gets lost amongst our lesser relationships, like with our co-workers, our barbers and stylists, our accountants, our doctors.
When we focus only on golf experiences, we still overlook it. We notice the golf pro, the club manager, the servers. We talk about the greenskeeper, the starter, and the cart girl. But, amidst those other folks, for some reason we forget the one we’re talking about them with, our golf buddy.
Many of us are fortunate to have one. You know; it’s that guy or gal we play with again and again, more than anyone else. Maybe we’re in the first year together; but, often, we’ve been doing this thing for years. Each 18-hole trip together is so easy, so effortless. It’s like falling off a log.
I noticed the value of a golf buddy on a recent trip-of-the-decade with my son, Noah. To fend off the end-of-winter, North Dakota blues, and get a jump on the golf season, we flew to Vegas. The true destination, though, was some 80 miles north. Wolf Creek Golf Club, in Mesquite, Nevada. For months, we’d looked forward to this father-son adventure. We’d viewed the course via photos and video flyovers. To prepare, we’d played and re-played the course on simulator. Then the day finally came.
And what a day it was! No photo, no video, no sim could do Wolf Creek justice. It was the difference between black-and-white and technicolor. Then, to make it even better, a perfect 70 degree, no-cloud day. Not enough wind to affect ball flight, but breeze enough to keep one comfortable. When the angels play in heaven, this is the day they get. Nothing could make this day better. Or could it?
Truth be told, as a twosome, there was that fear we’d be paired with duds, not dudes. After all, on our last golf trip, on our last beautiful course, on that last heavenly day, our pairing had been less than we’d hoped. Nice enough guys, but new and awful golfers. The perfection was tarnished. But not today. Not at Wolf Creek. Nope, on this day, we hit the pairing jackpot: Glen Turk and Matt Tevsh, of Midwest Golfing Magazine. Golf buddies.
Our time together began with easy, gracious hellos. “We love being paired with dads and sons.” It sounded genuine. Sharing a midwestern heritage, these guys felt like home. Five hours later, our time ended, sharing hopes our paths would cross on some great course down the road. And the eighteen holes in between were as good as good can get.
Glen and Matt were—are—not only quality golfers, they epitomize the term “golf buddies.” First off, they were beyond courteous and pleasant, as they shared stories of other courses and experiences; as they divulged what local course knowledge they could; and as they encouraged and reveled in each other’s good shots. Writers, they have bottomless reserves of moment-appropriate references from movies, literature, and popular culture. Before them, we’d been unaware of the obvious connection between Tiger Woods and Obi-wan Kenobi. But they were a pleasure, too, to observe simply as golf buddies, who enjoy one another’s company and share an exuberant and common passion for a beautiful game.
As golf buddies, Glen and Matt have clearly played the long game. Together, golf buddies experience chip-ins and drained putts, along with the splashers and hosel rockets. Through the course of a round, a season, some passing years, they also share with one another the chip-ins and shanks of life. There’s some opening up and even more quiet listening. There’s friendship.
In a sense, golf is an individual, solo experience. We beat balls and hit the practice green alone. Our score is ours alone. But the true joy and pleasure of the game is in its social aspects. It’s in the “good shots,” the teasing, the laughs. It’s in the shared memory of that ball your partner got stuck in that tree or the angry goose that chased you off that green. Not only do the memories pile up, but they improve with each telling. It’s all so much better with a buddy.
“Hey, Tevsh, remember Wolf Creek and those guys from Fargo? They were like Ray and John Kinsella, weren’t they?”
