May May McGee and Ella Kelley
Like my friend Angie, my father was a golfer. He played at the renowned Sweeten’s Cove Golf Club course when it was not so renowned. A little swimming pool, a questionable snack bar, and a suspect bathroom/changing area were the draw for me, certainly not the golf course. My mother wasn’t much better. Actually, when my dad returned from an afternoon of golf, she would ask how things went on the “golf court.” It goes without saying she certainly didn’t encourage us to play.
But my mother and I both loved the golf course, especially when we wouldn’t be bothered by golfers. We walked all over the rolling green manicured dips and rounded hills and greens of the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club’s links, traversing some of the most picturesque land ever. The river was a high point, of course, but the almost fairytale staircases crossing fields that abutted the golf course are what I remember vividly.
Unlike Angie, I didn’t watch the Ryder Cup, although I heard my husband comment on how out of control the crowd was.
He’s always tried to lure me to the game of golf, inviting me to tune into the Masters with him by telling me how much I’d love the grounds, overflowing with a riotous mix of rose, scarlet and deep magenta azaleas, all mature and coddled to perfection.
My son has the golf bug, and my nephew plays every chance he gets, as do most of the males in my family. And a couple of the females. I actually have two great-nieces who were out on the greens as I typed this column on a fall Friday afternoon. They go to Signal Mountain High School but were skipping class that day to play in the 2025 TSSAA Class A Girls Golf State Championship in Sevierville, Tn. May May McGee is on my husband’s side of my family, the granddaughter of Beth and Charlie Stout. Her mother, Katie Taylor, is my niece. And Ella Kelley is my sister’s granddaughter. The daughter of Candace and Newell Kelley, her grandparents are Woo and Scott Kelley.
I loved it when I learned they played a few sports together, including flag football and golf. But there’s something about knowing the two of them qualified for the State Tournament and play for the same team that turns that up a notch.
When my husband thought the tournament was going to be in Nashville, he announced we would be driving over for the day to watch.
“You want the lowest score, right?” I asked him, illustrating my limited knowledge of golf.
“Correct,” he said. “But it’s different on the tennis “course,” you know.”
Really, the idea of these two beautiful young girls whacking the heck out of the tiny dimpled white balls and calculating exactly where and how to land the club on them is all I need. Let’s just say I’m a big fan.
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Ferris Robinson is the author of three children’s books, “The Queen Who Banished Bugs,” “The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds,” and “Call Me Arthropod” in her pollinator series “If Bugs Are Banished.” “Making Arrangements” is her first novel and is available in paperback and on Kindle. “Dogs and Love – Stories of Fidelity” is a collection of true tales about man’s best friend. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.
Ferris Robinson
