Golf Reunion - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Golf Reunion

The first Ft. Loramie high school golf team was formed in 1966, playing at Shelby Oaks in its inaugural year as described in this previous blogpost. We had a reunion of sorts last week when two members of the team, Doug Barhost and I had the privilege of playing a fun round with Shelby Oaks golf pro Rob Fridley down here in Florida. Rounding out the foursome was legendary, now retired, Ft. Loramie dentist, Dr. John Campbell. Doc was just coming off back surgery and played amazingly well.

Doug taught history in the Sidney school system, and in 1973, Rob was one of his students. We talked about the fact that long-time teachers tend to remember only their best and worst students, and none of the rest, so obviously Rob wasn’t in that forgotten group, but we couldn’t get it out of either Doug or Rob just how he remembered Rob. My guess is since Doug loved sports and with Rob being an athlete who’s has a very successful 44 year career at Shelby Oaks, he was grouped with the best.

Do the math as you’ll figure out that Rob started at Shelby Oaks at a teenager likely working on the maintenance crew for peanuts so he could play golf for free. It was well worth the effort as he’s a great golfer who ascended to the head pro position in 1982 before he had actually graduated from college at Tiffin University. He's held the position ever since. Here’s an interesting SDN article about how the course came to be.

The situation has reversed for Rob and Doug, as now Rob is the teacher, helping Doug’s game tremendously, as just a few years back, Doug was going to give up golf. Even though Doug’s a leftie, Rob has him somewhat copying the swing pattern of pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau with his mechanics and alignment. Everything is square to the ball and as a result, all aspects of his game have improved from driving to putting where he’s now playing several times a week. No doubt at the end of Rob’s career, Doug will be considered one of Rob’s more memorable students, likely on both extremes, cause Doug used to be a poor golfer and is now pretty good. You should have seen the old left hander play on that first high school team!

With a group like this, the conversation is bound to turn from golf to beer as the round goes on, not planning our next shot, but where we’re going for a brewski after golf! Doug didn’t disappoint, as he said there’s a sports pub with outdoor seating nearby named Johnny Malloys. So off we headed after golf to tell more stories.

With our beer in hand, we commented how the craft brews have rally taken ahold, with Malloy’s offering dozens of choices, while back in our day, Budweiser, Strohs and Pabst were the primary mainstay brands. And before that, our parents enjoyed the German brands from Cincinnati described in this previous blogpost. Speaking of German beers, check out this video. 

I shared the story about how my Dad has converted our old Frigidaire to a beer cooler placed in our summer kitchen on the farm. He had drilled a hole for the tapper right in the door and kept the temperature just above freezing, so that old frig provided the coldest beer around. After telling the story, Rob asked what a summer kitchen was, so Doug, the old history teacher, proceed to expound on the history of the summer kitchen. Rob was sorry he had asked! Once a history teacher, always a history teacher!

PS: You might ask why Doc Campbell is considered “legendary”. Just ask around Ft. Loramie and you’ll find out!

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