My family relocated to the Philadelphia suburbs in the winter of 2015. My wife had landed her dream job at Vanguard and who was I, an out-of-work screenwriter, to hold her back? After living all of our adult lives in either the NYC or LA, it was with cautious optimism that we settled among the Amish farms of Chester County.

     Buying a home in suburban PA can be tricky for city folk like us. Most of the homes have well water, a septic system and propane powered heat — three things I wanted nothing to do with.  This limited our search but we eventually found a home with public water and city-run plumbing that used natural gas — and it was in a gated country club community.

My wife and I do not golf but we loved the house. When springtime rolled around we were invited to a free golf clinic for kids. On a whim, we took our daughter, who was really just tagging along with a school friend.  She was a natural who fell in love with the game instantly. She joyfully hit the ball. We signed her up for private lessons with the junior golf instructor.

This was her first few swings of a golf club.

Around this time is when I met soon-to-be new GM of our country club, Gregg Russell. When he found out I was a writer with a young daughter that golfed, he told me about his lifelong dream to write a book about his experiences with junior golfers called “Im Only 8” but since he was not a writer he never got it done.

We started talking.

(To be continued)