A Man Named ‘Mac’

Alice, Texas in August is a lot like how I picture Africa: Flat, hot, and lots of bushes that’ll poke you if you get too close.

Ruben had to get back to work so I was left at the trailer park, by myself, most days. School was still a month off and I figured I had better find something to do or I might lose my mind. I went for a walk one day and discovered a golf course called The Alice Country Club. I wasn’t a member, but I found that I could just walk right in and no one really cared. I did this twice and both times I merely turned around and walked right back out. The third time, I decided I was going to go swimming at the pool. I walked through the gate and was stopped by a lifeguard.

“You here to swim?”
“Um… yeah…”
“Well who is your daddy?”
“My daddy? His name is Ruben.”
“Okay. Write your name here.”

I had unintentionally just conned the A.C.C.

I did this for right around a week. I would walk down the long dirt drive, circle around the clubhouse, open the gate, write my name down, and spend the afternoon swimming. One day, as I was leaving, I saw an older man playing golf on the course. He was spending an awful lot of time eying his shot. I watched him as he looked off in the distance, then back down at his ball… off in the distance, back at the ball… Finally in one majestic and powerful stroke, he smacked that little white ball and sent it flying. I watched as it landed on the green and rolled towards the flag. Suddenly, the ball disappeared. The man shouted, and, if he had been 20 years younger, would have left his feet with joy. I realized that he had hit a hole in one and started to smile myself. He turned and looked around, I thought, to see if anyone had caught him celebrating. I had always thought it was a rule in golf that you couldn’t show any kind of satisfaction as far as your performance. When he spotted me looking at the green off in the distance, his half smile turned whole again.

“You see that, boy?”
“Yes sir. Is that a big deal?”
“Absolutely! Some men go their entire lives without an ace!”

He started walking towards me which made me nervous.

“Looks like you are my only witness. That means your name goes in the paper too!”

The newspaper?! For sneaking on to a golf course and stealing dips in a pool?! There had to be a catch.

“Whats your name, son?”
“Shane Temple, sir.”
“Temple? I didn’t know we had any Temples out this way. My grand dad’s first name was Temple. Would you believe that?”
“Well I took Temple from a famous man from Oklahoma, so its really only mine because I decided I wanted it”

The man smiled the kind of smile you see from people who have a secret.

“Well my name is Mr. Burnham, but you can call me ‘Mac’”
“Why ‘Mac’, sir?”
“Its what my grand son calls me. You remind me an awful lot of him.”

Mac invited me to sit in his cart with him as he finished off his round. I rode around and watched him play what I considered one of the stranger games in the world. When he finished, we drove up to the clubhouse and he turned in a card with his ’1′ on it. The man behind the counter took a look at the card.

“Your name Shane, boy?”

It was the first time I was proud of that fact.

From then on, whenever I would walk up to clubhouse, I would look for Mac’s Jeep. If I saw it, I would take off onto the course to find him. I will never forget the times I spent with him.

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