Comment from Wayne Fowler

Excellent

Okay, no politics!
It sounds like goofy-golf.
So, is it a fantasy story, where under the trestle is another dimension? Some sort of time warp?
I'll know in a few minutes.

 Comment Written 19-Aug-2023

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reply by the author on 19-Aug-2023

You guessed it. But there is a reason for the time travels that may take a while to realize what they are for. I'll make it quicker for you by telling you the basic idea of the book (which I've shared with others already.)

Golf is a game that appears to have an uncertain future. The main character, Kevin Parsons, is a decent golfer, but not a particularly huge fan of the game. He likes it, but if it were to disappear entirely, he wouldn't be particularly overwrought like many true golf fans would be. What the time travels are for is to give him an appreciation for and an education about the game so that he can lead the way for its survival. During each era he visits, he will either find out something great about the game that needs to be preserved or something bad about the game that needs to be overcome. By the time his travels are over (after Parts 1, 2, and 3) and he's back in his normal time, he's now in a position to do something about it. That's what Part 4 will be about. So that's it in a nutshell.

Comment from Liz O'Neill

Excellent

Being familiar with the phonetics of golfers in my experience with my father and his golfing Buddies I find it incomprehensible that they would let a golf course fall into disrepair but I see it was about money & water. My, how things change for the golfers in this account.

 Comment Written 20-Jul-2023

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reply by the author on 20-Jul-2023

They do indeed, but maybe there's hope yet. Sometimes you need to go back to the beginning to understand how important this game is to many people.

reply by Liz O'Neill on 21-Jul-2023

my father wanted to practice in the winter so before it became commercial, my mother spray painted his golf balls in the 50's

Comment from jmdg1954

Excellent

Jim. I'm trying to catch up on your story, I've been busy at work after the family left.

Maybe I missed it, but how old is Art Calvin?

Going to the next chapter.
John

 Comment Written 05-Jul-2023

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reply by the author on 05-Jul-2023

I never really say how old he is, but I picture him as being in his 70s.

reply by jmdg1954 on 05-Jul-2023

That?s the impression I got. I?m glad I didn?t miss the age of you gave it. Makes me feel my comprehension still works. Haha.

Comment from Pam Lonsdale

Excellent

Jim, I'm on vacation and will not be able to keep up with the longer works in my mailbox. Just touching base with people to let them know I'll miss a chapter or two but will be back!

I do like that you're giving us a future look at the game.

See you soon!

Pam

 Comment Written 02-Jul-2023

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reply by the author on 02-Jul-2023

No problem, Pam. Have a great time on your vacation!

Comment from lancellot

Excellent

Very interesting. Did Kevin go back or forward in time? Or did he get transported to another world? Who exactly is Art, as he is not listed in the cast of characters. And how was Calvin "Saved"?

Questions for the next chapter.

Good work.

 Comment Written 01-Jul-2023

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reply by the author on 01-Jul-2023

I've never known the right time to put a character into the list of characters. Do you do it the first posting they are introduced or the next posting that they occur? Sometimes you many not want to announce them in the list if they become a surprise character in the current posting in case the reader reads the list of characters first. I probably should have put him in; I just wasn't sure.

The story begins in the present, then we jump back two years to see what led up to the present. You'll have to wait a bit to get the answers to your other questions.

Comment from lyenochka

Excellent

Oh-oh. I'm thinking that this Art character is a phantom or some magical person. He's dressed like he's from some other time and he's an architect of golf courses which aren't being made at this time, so I wonder what he meant...
Great dialogue and development of the characters!

 Comment Written 01-Jul-2023

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reply by the author on 01-Jul-2023

Gotcha thinking. You have some good instincts, Helen. Thanks for a nice review.

Comment from Tom Horonzy

Excellent

is this the postscript to another chapter, the one I mumbled about? I don't recall any of these characters. Did you begin yet another book? Anyhow, what lays beyond the o.b line?

 Comment Written 30-Jun-2023

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reply by the author on 01-Jul-2023

You may have missed the line at the beginning of Chapter 1 that said "Two years earlier." With the exception of Art Calvin, these are the same 3 characters from Chapter 1.

Keep reading to see what lies beyond the railroad trestle.

Comment from Jay Squires

Excellent

Nothing like ending with an "and..." for a natural cliffhanger, lol.

Since this takes place 10 years into the future, is it safe to say that golf courses are not in that sorry a condition now? I do remember golf courses locally being affected by the huge cut-back in water usage in the middle of last summer's drought, but nothing to the extent of what takes place in your story.

sending it smartly down the middle of the hole. [Is that what you intended? It must be since to use it several times later. I assumed you meant "fareway."

I'm still waiting to hear about the crashed golfcart!

Jay

 Comment Written 30-Jun-2023

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reply by the author on 01-Jul-2023

You may have to wait for a while to see what happens as they hurtle towards the rocks.

You are correct that courses are not in that bad a shape--yet--but this is my interpretation of what they might look like without the kind of maintenance which is common today. I've seen a number of abandoned golf courses, and as long as there is frequent enough rain, they will still look greenish. With only very sparse rain, much of the grass will likely die in a fairly short time.

I did indeed mean to say "down the hole" because I followed it with the fact that it all looked the same now, and there was no distinguishing fairway from rough anymore.

Comment from Carol Hillebrenner

Excellent

You ended it on a very good cliffhanger. Always a good choice. You had a little more technical details than I, a non-golfer, understood. In Colorado in the seventies my husband and I played a mountain scrub course with sand greens, no oiling. I lost balls to a goose, a dog, and 9 balls in a row to a 5-foot wide swift water stream. Had to go home on that one as we had no more balls and they didn't sell them.

 Comment Written 30-Jun-2023

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reply by the author on 30-Jun-2023

You sound like Roy McAvoy in Tin Cup. That's the first I've heard of someone quitting the game because they didn't have the balls to play! :) Funny story. A goose and a dog actually stole your ball? The rotten thieves!

Comment from barbara.wilkey

Excellent

This is well written and I wondering why he won't be back right away. I am pretty sure he won't.

As predicted, there were no other groups there waiting to tee off, (You can omit the second 'there', it's not needed.)

 Comment Written 30-Jun-2023

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reply by the author on 30-Jun-2023

Thanks, Barbara. He won't but he will. (Figure that one out!)

Thanks for the good suggestion about the second "there." I changed it.

reply by barbara.wilkey on 30-Jun-2023

Aren't you glad I didn't comment on the 'that'??

reply by the author on 30-Jun-2023

Which that was that? (Reminds me of the following sentence I learned long ago:

That that that that man saw was wrong.)

reply by barbara.wilkey on 30-Jun-2023

There were 29 'that' in this post. Many were needed, some not, and some could've been changed to 'which'.

reply by the author on 30-Jun-2023

I'll look it over again. Thanks!