Our Weekly Foursomes

Jerry Eberhardt of Qunicy, IL, writes in response to Dave Kindred's March story on the foursome that lost three of their members in a plane crash:

From Kindred's story:

On hundreds of Saturday and Sunday mornings before the sorrow of April 4, 2007, the four buddies came smiling into the grillroom at Mahopac Golf Club, a small club on the north shore of Lake Mahopac, about 60 miles north of New York City...

When I spoke to [Joe Massaro] in December 2007, he didn't want to talk about his friends. He said it hurt too much. But even as he said he didn't want to talk, he talked....

From Eberhardt's letter:

Just read the story, > A weekly foursome that ended too soon, by Dave Kindred. Enjoyed the story, reminds me of my golf group. We enjoy each other and we play in all kinds of weather, if our course is open we are out playing , a lot of times we are the only ones on the course because it's too cold for other golfers. We take a lot of grief from our friends and the pro at our club but we all enjoy it. We have our own handicap system and we change partners every week. Again, thank you for a great article.

Thanks, Jerry. I've been struck while reading the thousands of essays we've got for the US Open Contest how much the game, often played with the same guys week in and week out, means to us, especially to us men, if I might say that. My wife Julie reminds me often that I don't "share" very well. But I share experiences with my golfing friends and that's another way to know someone, to be close. I can hear Garyhard, who posts on this blog, accusing me of playing in the Universal Open again, but it's true. It's the way we communicate with one another.

In a few weeks a group of us who've been traveling to play a winter trip for 25 years, will meet up again at Amelia Island, where we began back in 1984. There's a connection to those guys I don't have to anyone else. It would be devastating to experience what Joe Massaro has. Kindred's piece really reminded me of how much I appreciate that trip, those guys.

--Bob Carney