Documenting personal golf experiences
This project was conceived in September 2015, but has origins far before that.
Foresmyths is a labor of love from four authors: four brothers who learned the game of golf from their father and who have experienced great rounds with their grandfathers, uncles, friends and more. More than anything the journey captured here will hopefully serve as a small payback to the man that taught us this great game and which has captured our attention as sports fans and even golf fanatics.
Growing up in Cincinnati, the four Smyth boys were fortunate to live close to our home course and could be on the course in about 5 minutes. We recall walking a few holes of our home course after dinner with our father on humid summer evenings. When no other golfers were in sight, we would put extra balls in play as we were getting one-on-one lessons from our dad. We learned the fundamentals. We learned golf etiquette and golf rules. We learned to cope with the frustration of this great game.
At its best, we would be able to get out on the golf course a few evenings a week, playing anywhere from 3 - 9 holes, and closing our evening sessions just as the sun was setting behind the rolling hills. After the round, we would pack in the convertible for the short ride home, and in some cases, make a quick stop to the local Graeter's on Hyde Park Square.
Those were the days. Golf was seemingly impossible, but our dad, like many golf teaching dads before him, was able to hook us.
The four Smyths, now adults with kids of our own --- our parents have 12 grandchildren between the four of us --- have been at a point in our lives where gifts have been seemingly difficult to figure out for our parents the last 10 - 15 years. Golf has remained a great theme for my dad, but you can only give so many golf books or clubs. Enter golf trips.
Beginning with our father's 65th birthday (fall of 2007), the four Smyths began a tradition. We would begin to use larger 5-year birthdays as a means to pay back our father for some of the great golf experiences where he's treated us, places like:
- Pebble Beach
- Whistling Straits
- St Andrews
- Muirfield
- Old Head
- Lahinch
- Royal Portrush
- Royal County Down
So with a newfound mission, we set out to repay our dad in the small ways that we could treating to golf trips to Valhalla (2007) and the Pete Dye Course at French Lick (2012).
This year (2017) we will entertain our dad and what we hear and golfers know to be one of the best golf experience's in the US: Bandon Dunes.
In our lead up to this legendary 75th birthday celebration, stay tuned with us as we document previous golf trips, golf stories and the experiences that have lasted our lifetimes.
We welcome your feedback, so please get in touch with us.
Thanks for visiting.
fore |fôr|
EXCLAMATION called out as a warning to people in the path of a golf ball.
ORIGIN late 15th century, Old English, of Germanic origin
smyth |smiTH|
NOUN A family of four boys with a golf loving father and a patient mother
ORIGIN Cincinnati, Ohio, by way of Northern Ireland
See "smith" for more common spelling
-smith |smiTH|
SUFFIX denoting a person skilled in creating something with a specified material.
ORIGIN late 15th century, Old English, of Germanic origin