![]() "Just to be here is awesome," Point said. Point, who had a goal and an assist in the two games, was thrilled to be a part of the All-Star Weekend. The Atlantic then lost to the Pacific 5-2 in the championship game. Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau.Kucherov had a hat trick and Point scored a goal in the Atlantic's 7-4 win against the Metropolitan Division. Lessons learned on those Saturday mornings did not involve the golf swing. Up close, he watched them compete hard for meager stakes in a game they loved. Hopefully, he will mention Jim Elder, Paul Eells, Jimmy Jones, Ron Robinson, Tommy Polk, Sam Bracy, Rick Jones, Dale Swindle, and others he was paired with when barely a teenager. Taking after his dad, he won’t speak long at the banquet. He is appreciative of his induction into the ASGA Hall of Fame next week, but says the honor is second fiddle to his 10-year-old’s soccer games and his 12-year-old’s dance competitions. When he does, his skill is a reminder that there is a huge talent gap between good players and guys who think they can play. Now 47, he teaches the game, his clubs are in his garage and he doesn’t play a half-dozen rounds a year. His attitude was the same at the rag-tag nine-hole course in North Little Rock where there might be 20 players or more, young and old, who put in $1 each, drew for partners and competed for golf balls. There was a moment when he missed an opportunity to reduce Hamilton’s two-up lead and I offered the consolation that he had earned a spot on the Arkansas Cup team by reaching the Match Play finals. Once in a great while he would ask my club to a particular green and then subtract two clubs for his shot. ![]() I remember the one-putt par after a tee shot in a hazard in the Match Play final and the 6-iron from a bunker on the 72nd hole for a one-stroke victory in the Stroke in 1988, but I couldn’t recall that locally owned and trained Proper Reality won that Arkansas Derby.Īs the caddie, my advice was minimal, mostly an encouraging “nice stroke” when a well-struck putt avoided the hole. I remember the up-and-down birdie on the seventh at Texarkana, Daly’s ensuing three-putt par, and Daly not winning a hole in their quarterfinal match in 1987, but no details of the Razorbacks’ overtime victory over Arkansas State University in the NIT. I remember Petey losing a two-shot lead and then his soaring 4-iron that set up a birdie on the 71st hole of the 1986 stroke play championship at Maumelle, but I can’t recall a single highlight from the 41-0 season-ending victory that earned Arkansas a spot in the Orange Bowl. I remember the 4-foot left-right birdie putt our son made on the 19th hole to extend the match with Hamilton, but all I can remember about the Texas game that year was that the Longhorns did not score a TD and won. There are only so many ways to say proud father. Personally involved, this column is more difficult than a Razorback football game or The Masters or the Arkansas Derby. In 1988, he won them both, the first sweep since Stan Lee in 1971. In 1986-1987, he and John Daly split the four available state titles. The Arkansas Gazette was still in business and we made the trek to Little Rock to get an early copy of the Sunday edition, published assurance that he had won his first state championship. On the nearby dining room table was the 64-player bracket, filled out completely, a souvenir confiscated by the father of the champion and a large ornate silver trophy on a wooden base with the names of the ASGA Match Player winners from 1967 through 1984. That Saturday night in July, the 20-year-old had a pinch-me moment, wondering aloud if defending champion Barry Hamilton had conceded the 4-inch putt on the 20th hole of their match.
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