The Phantom of the Open

Our time down here in Costa Rica, my wife Jan and I, is nearing the end. You could say we are on the 17th hole with one more to play. We are flying out on the 2nd of June spending the night in Novato and driving back to the coast on June 3rd. The first thing we will do after checking in at home will be to drive to the Coast Cinema in Ft. Bragg and watch the Film Festival golf movie, showing at 7:30 on the 3rd, called THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN. This movie tells the remarkable true story of Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator and optimistic dreamer from Barrow-in-Furness who, with the support of his family and friends, managed to gain entry to the 1976 British Open qualifying, despite never playing a round of golf before. With pluckiness and unwavering selfbelief, Maurice pulls off a series of stunning, hilarious, and heartwarming attempts to compete at the highest level of professional golf, drawing the ire of the golfing elite but becoming a British folk hero in the process. Don’t give up hope Bill Speake or Butch Carlstadt you still may make it into the Open.

Golfers who have never played golf? Recently local golfer Chong Mejias’s grandson Samuel 25 years of age played golf for the first time ever on the Little River Golf Course. Samuel hit a few range balls then joined Chong on the course hitting a drive on top of the hill on number three then chipping in from 15 yards. The next day he played again with Chong, Dan Barrett, and Brad Theisen. On hole number eight Samuel hit his drive over the sand trap behind the eighth green landing halfway between the green and the driving range net. Brad estimated Samuel was hitting some of his drives 350 yards. Wow! This is the guy who may be heading for the Open.

The road out to our little jungle house in the Carbon Uno area of Costa Rica in its rural nature is very much like several of the roads on the North Coast; Albion Ridge, Navarro Ridge, Little Lake Road, and more. The north coast roads have scattered houses and clusters of houses as does the Carbon Uno Road which is gravel where the North Coast Roads are paved. The Carbon Uno road has small grocery stores and places to eat. The “grocery stores” are called Pulparia’s and are small countertop stores where all the products are behind the counter and the customer asks the owner for what they want. The food places are small buildings next to or attached to a house. It would be like driving up Albion Ridge Road and around H Road there would be a little restaurant or arriving at Middle Ridge you’d find a small grocery outlet. Mmmm.