Holly Thompson - The Blondebomber and Gramps

 

 

So, the one thing in life to come easy for me was a golf swing. I was 10 years old when I got my first set of golf clubs. And a year later, at 11, I had made the big leagues. I was in my grandpa's and his foursomes group every Saturday morning at 07:00 AM. And for those of you that don't know golf, that is like prime time. That is when all the serious golfers and good golfers are out there. 

 

So, for me to be this little 11-year-old girl joining these guys at 07:00 AM, it was a big deal and I felt like top shit. [audience laughter] My grandpa and I had this awesome routine of every morning getting up, and going to Julie's Diner, and having chocolate chip pancakes and me riding shotgun in the golf cart with the smell of his cigar smoke in the air. After every round, we'd go into the clubhouse and he, with his booming loud voice, would command an entire room and brag about how his granddaughter had outscored all the other guys that day. 

 

I started to join local tournaments and win. And that catapulted me to playing at the national level in winning. Newspaper sources were referring to me as this blonde bomber golf phenom. And girls that I would compete against would actually want me to sign their scorecard after we played, because they thought I would be this LPGA star. 

 

Those Saturday mornings with my grandpa dwindled away. I stopped playing with him, because I became all focused. I had to live up to the hype. I had to become what everyone else thought I would become. And so, I ended up going on a full-ride scholarship to the University of Wisconsin, Madison. And I played for a couple months, but the fun was gone. And that swing that used to be so easy, it wasn't easy anymore. 

 

I ended up quitting after only a couple months. I didn't touch a club or even look at one for years. It wasn't until my grandpa was diagnosed with cancer that I thought again about that. It came really suddenly, and he was only given six months to live if he was lucky and hadn't played for years. He was so depressed he wouldn't leave his house, he wouldn't talk to anyone. I ended up one morning just doing the only thing I could think of. And I ended up dusting off those old clubs, and I drove over to his house and I woke him up and I said, grandpa, we have a golf course to go to. 

 

He turned towards me, and he hadn't spoken to anyone in weeks, and he said, “But you don't play anymore.” And I said, I play today, grandpa. Will you be my date? He got up out of his bed for the first time in weeks. He was moving slow that day, that cancer was progressing really quickly. But I drove him to Julie's Diner and we had those chocolate chip pancakes we had shared so many times before. We got to the golf course at 07:00 AM sharp, because all old guys love to be punctual. [audience laughter] 

 

His friends were waiting there. I took my golf club out of my bag, and it felt so foreign in my hands and so big and heavy. I went up and I took my first swing. It was on a par three, 150-yard hole that we had golfed so many times before. I took a swing and I completely missed. I remember turning towards my grandpa and his buddies, and you could have heard a pin drop. They had never seen me do that. And I just was like, “Guys, I was a practice swing. I was just a practice swing.” 

 

I just refocused and I tried to get myself back to just like, “I'm with grandpa. There's nothing else. It's just be 11 years old again with this club in your hand and just swing. Just have fun.” 

And so, I swung again and I hit the ball. As soon as I hit it, I knew. When you're a golfer and you hit that ball just right, you know. I sat there and I watched the trajectory of that ball and I watched it land at the front of the green and it kept rolling and rolling, just following the undulation of the green. And it rolled 45ft, I measured. [audience laughter] I saw it go towards this red pin and it disappeared, dropped. This is that moment every golfer dreams of. 

 

It's for as much as my grandpa and I had golfed, we had never had a hole in one or witnessed one. I went in crazy mode. I was doing dances I would not wish anyone else to see ever again. [audience laughter] I just remember, like once I calmed down, I look over at my grandpa and for the first time in my life, I saw him crying. [chuckles] I started crying, obviously. Just in that moment, it made me realize there was no amount of fame, no tournament I could have won on any level that would have made me feel more like a champion looking at my grandpa at that moment. 

 

He died three weeks after that round. I just look back at that round every day and I'm so grateful I had that experience with him. And then, he reminded me that all that matters is those moments with loved ones, the rest of the stuff is fluff. And to this day, I golf again. I just do it for fun. And the swing is easy again. I swear, sometimes when I'm in a golf cart, I walk a lot. But when I'm in a golf cart, I can smell the scent of his cigar and I can't help but smile.