What I Love about golf. Bobby Cow
Today – Early morning rounds in San Francisco.
I was in college and working at Lincoln Park Golf Course. My buddy, Rob or as I called him Bobby Cow (more on that later) would show up at my house at 5am in South San Francisco, we’d hit a donut shop on Grand Ave then drive to Lincoln and tee off by 5:45. It was dark when we teed off, usually for the first hole or two. We always took a cart and we played 18 in a couple of hours. What I love about this is the simplicity of life at the time. Bobby Cow comes over, we get coffee and donuts, play 18 holes and are home by 9am. We both had jobs we needed to get to, so we teed off early. The cart we took had no roof and was gas, I can still smell the fumes and the sound of the engine rumbling. To date this, it was the summer of 1990.
What I love most about this story is Bobby Cow. We did everything together, he loved golf, we played and practiced together, he had a day job and also worked at Harding Park and later San Francisco Golf Club. Bobby was a phenomenal athlete and he would beat you at anything. He grew up in the tenderloin in San Francisco and saw things no little kid should see, athletics were his outlet. At some point his Mom moved him out of the City to a farm and he had a pet cow which they named Bobby, which if you know Bobby is hilarious. I never thought to name my childhood dog Donnie, but Bobby Cow named his cow after himself. He loved that cow. After living on the farm they came back to San Francisco and eventually moved to South City. My family loved him and my Dad especially seemed to get Bobby. On weekends he would stay at our house.
Just having one friend in this life, like my friend Bobby Cow is an incredible gift and the game of golf is what brought us together.
