He's Back

 Sad News to report but maybe two month ago I told you that Gray Capps was hospitalized in Greenville.  I heard today Gray has died of Leukemia.  Gray along with Ken Capps has filmed every football game at Rocky Mount since I think they both were in school.  He was one of the unsung hero's of Rocky Mount that loved the Gryphons and did what he could to support them and that was give the coaches film in order to improve the team.  He will surely be missed on Friday nights.

Do you remember the name Casey Martin.  He is known for  a lot more than just being Tiger Woods teammate while the two played golf at Stanford.  Do you remember now? He's the guy that sued the PGA tour because they would not allow him to ride a golf cart in order to try to qualify for the PGA tour.

Remember now?, Martin has Klippel-Trenauney-Weber Syndrome.  That is a rare  circulatory  disorder which causes him pain when he tries to walk 18 holes of golf.   Walking 18 holes of golf  gives me pain too.   That of course would be  about four miles if you keep it in the fairway on every shot.  He asked the PGA for an exemption because of his physical condition and they said no and he sued and the Supreme Court agreed with Martin.  He failed to keep his players tour card after that first year and since has become the Golf coach at the University of Oregon.

I personally agreed with the PGA tour that Martin should not be allowed to use a golf cart. I also don't think every kid should get a trophy for playing in  a Tee ball  league.  The PGA Tour just knew that every Tom, Dick and Harry would come running with some excuse that they should be allowed to play on tour but now looking back it didn't happen.

Next week the U S Open goes back to the Olympic Club in site of the city of San Francisco.  1998 Casey Martin qualified for that Open and believe it or not finished 23rd.  Recently Martin realized that the Open qualifying was occurring near his home and now at 40 years old said what the heck.  Monday he sank a five foot par putt on the last hole to shoot a 136 for the two day qualifier and he is in the tournament next week.

He will  tee it up next week in the U S Open for the second time.  He is surely a person who has taken his disability and used it to his best advantage.  I will be pulling for him next week.

I read with sadness in my hometown newspaper  on Monday the death of Dan Herring.  The name may ring a bell here in Rocky Mount as his son Danny has lived here for many years and retired with Carolina Telephone, Sprint, Sudden Link or Country Link what ever the name of the Telephone company is now.

I was a member at Beechwood Country Club in Ahoskie while Dan was the pro there and back in the day I played golf every chance I got.  Dan as a Club Pro qualified for the U S Open twice and even qualified once for the Senior Open.  I never took a lesson from him but any time he was riding by on a golf cart and watch me flail away he would make suggestions  trying to keep me from killing people on the other fairway.  You talk about someone who could tell a good golf story but Dan had many.  He was head pro at Beechwood for 35 years and after retirement moved to Franklin Virginia and was Pro there.

Dan was 88 years old leaves three sons Danny, Jack who is one of the craziest people to go to a ball game with and Charlie who was a year older than me when we were in school.