Tim Wildmon

AFA president

September 2001 – I almost killed a man once. I'm not proud of the fact, but it is a part of my history I can't escape. Only a few people have known about it until now.

Back in high school and during my college years I used to do a little golfing with my buddies. One summer morning we were on the tee for the first hole. I placed my ball on the tee and took a couple of practice swings with my driver. I always used the biggest driver in the bag, thus enhancing my chances of actually hitting the ball when I swung.

About 25 yards from where I was teeing off was the tee for hole number 4 where four men stood, clubs in hand, ready to hit the ball down that fairway. To put this in perspective, I was aiming my ball for a green that would have been at 12 o'clock. The tee for hole 4, where these gentlemen stood, would have been at 9:30. Then, in an act that defied the laws of physics, I hit my ball directly toward tee 4. That's right, facing forward, I hit the ball behind me!

In a millisecond, the ball reached the tee, ricocheting off the wooden club head one of the men was holding. I can still see it today, my heart pounding. I didn't know what to do. What do you say in a moment like this? "I'm sorry I almost killed you. Can I please have my ball back to try it again?" just didn't seem appropriate. I just stood there while my buddy Jim Reese said, aghast, "Wildmon!!"

The golfer who had the near-death experience was stunned. As I walked over to apologize, he said, "Son, if you don't have any more control than that, you probably don't need to be out here." I understood his logic. So, I finished my round of golf that day and never went back.

Recently, I read another story of failure on the links involving professional golfer Ian Woosnam. Unlike me, Woosnam was able to redeem his bad situation.

Relatively unknown outside the golfing world, Woosnam was playing in the prestigious British Open in July. He had been on what one news service called a "downhill slide" in his career. But here he was atop the leaderboard, tied on the last day of the tournament, with four other golfers including eventual winner David Duvall. 

This may well have been Woosnam's last opportunity at winning another major golfing championship. The newspaper account the next day read as follows:

Ian Woosnam was pumped as he stood on the second tee Sunday. After nearly making a hole-in-one, he was leading in the final round of the British Open.

Bending over to tee his ball up, he straightened up to his full 5-foot-4-height and turned to caddie Miles Byrne for a club. Instead, he got the shock of his golfing life.

"You're going to go ballistic," Byrne told him.

"Why?" asked Woosnam.

"We've got two drivers in the bag," the caddie replied.

Woosnam knew immediately what it meant. He had 13 other clubs in the bag. With two drivers, that made 15. Only 14 are allowed. The two-stroke penalty he had to call on himself would knock Woosnam out of the lead. 

"At that moment, I felt like I had been kicked in the teeth," Woosnam said.

When the day was over, Woosnam did fall four strokes short of the winner and was left to wonder what might have been had one of the worst gaffs in major championship history not occurred.

But the responses of the two gentlemen involved here is what captured my attention. First, I expected to read that the caddie, Byrne, had found someone or something to blame for his mistake. But instead, said Byrne, "You want me to stand here and make excuses? There is no excuse. The buck stops at me. My fault, two-shot penalty, end of story."

How refreshing to see someone take responsibility for his mistake. I kept reading the story to find out what Woosnam had to say when he fired Byrne. Surely he would say what a bozo Byrne was and how he likely cost Woosnam his last chance at a major championship. He would have been justified in the eyes of almost everyone because everyone who followed the tournament knew what a fatal blow Byrne's mistake dealt Woosnam.

To my surprise, Woosnam said, "It's the biggest mistake he will make in his life. He won't do it again. He's a good caddie. He will have a severe talking to when I get in, but I'm not going to sack him."

The story went on to say that the crowd sympathized with Woosnam and rose to their feet and gave him a standing ovation as he and Byrne approached the 18th and final green. Failure. Responsibility. Honesty. Understanding. Mercy. Forgiveness. I think I've read that story somewhere before.