About & Why

A letter from David — St. John Golf & Country Club

Hello,

Wow. To say I was humbled on Wednesday would be a massive understatement. When I was informed of what had been planned, I had no idea what to expect. To see the number of guys who showed up was amazing to me. If I didn't get to speak with you, I apologize. I wanted to get to each one of you to thank you for coming. It was a great day, and the support you showed means the world to me. So THANK YOU!!

Mark, thank you for spearheading and financing this. Ed, thank you for organizing it. Bill, thank you for all of your work organizing and setting up the course.

A little back story on St. John and this golf course, if I may...

It is 50 years ago this year that a few of us decided that we wanted to take up golf. I was 12 years old. I purchased a set of used clubs for $25. It included a 3, 5, 7, 9 iron, a putter and 1 and 3 wood. It also came with a bag and pull cart. I then paid my $15 annual membership/ green fees to join the St. John Golf & Country Club. That allowed us to play as much golf as we wanted. So we did, almost all day, everyday. The course was 6 holes back then, so we went around and around and around.

If we could hit our drives to the tree in the middle of number 1, we were crushing it. It took a while for that to happen. The irrigation was done by above ground sprinkler pipes. Every once in a while, your shot would roll up and hit the pipes which was frustrating. In the early evening was watering time, so we had to dodge the sprinklers a lot. I can't even begin to imagine how many times I went around this course.

Brett Schneidmiller and my brother Bill were there with me from the beginning. Golf wasn't cool enough for Keith to join us until after high school. It took him a while to catch on, but I'm glad he finally did.

We didn't play any other course until I was 19. We were all afraid to try to play a course in Spokane. We didn't want to embarrass ourselves, because the big city players had to be much better than we were. We had heard about Easy Ezzy, so that was the course we chose to play. When we did, it was Bill, Brett, Keith and me. It didn't take us long to figure out that you big city golfers were a bunch of hacks!!

There is a tournament that happens every year on the last weekend in April. It’s called the Pig Putt, because it is the same weekend as the annual stock show. We played in the original version of it 30ish years ago. I played in it this year with Keith, Brett and my son, Cameron. I have played in numerous bestball tournaments over the years. The last several years, Mark has been my partner. It is one of the things I look forward to the most all year. The Webb’s Slough has sprint boat races two times a year. We would come down and play 18 holes of golf and then head over to the races for the rest of the day. The drinking started at about 8 am and didn’t stop till after midnight. As my son is known to say “You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.”

I have so many memories of good times spent with friends over the years on this course.

Sorry to make a short story, long. I tell you all this to say that I love this course. It is where I learned to love the game of golf. It is where I played my first golf, and I couldn't think of anywhere else that I wanted to play my last golf.

I was honored that you were there to share it with me!!

— David