...written by Kathryn Bencriscutto
Happy endings?
The title to these writings is self evident to my life's journey as the daughter of a self made man who rose from the Italian American backyard gardens in his stature of community honesty and a golf talent second to none in his epoch in the Midwest. He was always voted player of the year or teacher of the year throughout my life, and always called upon for Executive PGA committees in rulings of tournament play for that sound judgment, and comprehension of the sport, in an honesty that brought the best out of his constituents.
Of course in raising four daughters was even a more sobering concern for his life's duties, in addition to making it his business to support his family by teaching a whole city how to play golf and later a whole international strata, his abilities, with a wife he always loved and admired till his last endearing departing words to us to be good to each other and our one true creator above all to finish high.. by saying; "Don't forget to raise your right heel"...
A phrase he repeated to us throughout our lives about our lessons in golf and life.. One, being of the 'follow through' of our golf swings - he made us show him sometimes - not on the golf course but, from his living room chair when our family was casually all sitting around before breakfast, in our PJ's.
I later wrote in a poem for the 18th hole .. " our farewell arms locked strong a promise to finish high and swing it honest"....published in the Racine Journal Times March 5, 2008 __18 years after his passing.
But it was a great antagonism that always brought out the very truth between us in the history of our time together growing up with this thoughtful gentleman we called Dad. What allot of the public saw was more than making winners ... It was consoling the losers, the dreams he built in his successes and the tears he privately shed over the disillusionment of a heartless society he stood up to.
My purpose in bringing out these feminine qualities of an American Woman was his attitude of self leadership and conscience of integrity. He gave and gave all to us his family, his faith in doing the right thing.
He didn't have time for anything less. Too many people wanted for his attention. The Payne Stewarts the "Dean Martin Open" Celebrities, country club owners his golfing community he was always loyal to, and winners he tried to help along the way like Johnny Miller, the Masters students like Tommy Aron, and a myriad of international students all vying to get time with him. kept me looking for the glint in his eye that still constantly noticed if I was un-loved or out of line.
He was a strongly honest man and extremely independent. People who wanted to climb on his bandwagon were"t always just his children They were the children of the Junior Masters. And that was a very large club.
Looking from the outside in sometime at a parent's actions can mold the entire personality of its child. What I gleaned most was how though many criticised him, in the civic arena of public golf...most people didn't"t or couldn't because of his diplomacy and unfaltering integrity of his genuine fairness and sometimes painstaking honesty.
So yes I gleaned to be true to myself as the desire that left me on the path to acquire my own autonomy so that I NEVER had to forfeit my freedom from being a slave to vice, dishonesty, not doing my best. Kathryn Bencriscutto
