Read Online The Sand Trap by Dave Marshall - Free Book Online

do you beat everyone?”
    “I don’t try and beat anyone; I just try and
beat the course. If someone else does better or worse than me I
really don’t care,” Melanie responded. “Except for today with Chad.
Today I cared.”
    Rebecca now realized several important
things that altered forever her relationship with Melanie. Firstly,
Melanie was still very much a little girl from the country. Maybe
the taunts were right and she was just a hick. But whatever, there
was a naivety that Rebecca was not sure she wanted to change.
Secondly, despite her prodigious talent, she was totally non
competitive, at least against people, not the golf course. As
Rebecca reflected upon the wins so far she could see that the focus
Melanie had was not a competitive focus but an intense focus upon
only the golf course; its curve, anomalies and how the wind and
local environment changed the way her ball would fly. It had
nothing to do with beating anybody. Thirdly, Melanie did not see
herself as a woman, or a man or anything in between. She was just a
golfer. Any reference to representing the progress of womanhood in
the battle of the sexes was totally lost on Melanie.
    Rebecca gathered her thoughts and realized
she would have to be the competitor in their relationship and she
would have to look out for the interests of womanhood. It burned at
her that the press, Chad and the others like him would be saying
that women could never compete with men and she wished she had
Melanie’s talent so she could shove their drivers up their
asses.
    “Ok Melanie,” Rebecca paused. “Look at me,"
she ordered. “Here’s the thing. I can understand more than most the
urge to mate with the opposite sex, but you and I are going to have
to come to an agreement if you want me to keep caddying for you.
You do want me to keep caddying with you don’t you?”
    That perked Melanie’s attention.
    “What? You mean because I didn’t win you
would quit on me?”
    “No. Not because you lost. But because you
purposely lost. I won’t work with you, help you, advise you, do
whatever I think necessary on the golf course to help you get
better, if the next time your hormones surge you throw the
game.”
    There was no response from Melanie and
Rebecca suddenly thought of something.
    “Have you ever done this before?”
    “I used to do it all the time at hockey and
baseball. Otherwise no one would have played with me.”
    “No. I mean have you ever done this at golf?
While here at Clapshorn?”
    “Well I never threw a match, but I often
didn’t win as much as I could have because it would have made some
of the other girls look bad.”
    Rebecca was incredulous and kicked herself
for not seeing this before.
    “Well, Melanie. My rule is this. If you
can't live with it you and I will part our golfing ways. You can
play any kind of game you want with your shots; put shots in traps
or into the water, hit a putter off the tee box, putt with your
driver. I don’t fucking care. Just three things. Don’t ever think I
don’t know what you are doing. I knew you hit it into the sand on
purpose on eighteen. Don’t ever do it to make some guy feel better.
Their egos rarely need your help. And most of all Melanie, and this
is the most important-- never, never play like this and lose a
match.” She added a final “Never!” for emphasis.
    “Are we agreed on this Melanie?” Rebecca put
out her hand for a handshake.
    Melanie smiled and took her hand.
    “Agreed,” Melanie exclaimed, greatly
relieved that after over ten years of golf, she now had a friend
she did not have to keep things from or try and fool on the golf
course or anywhere else. “Do we need to spit on our palms, or jab
our fingers to mix our blood or something like that?”
    Rebecca laughed. “No. Stupid, macho men do
that. Women go off and seal their bond with a chocolate sundae!
Start the car and let’s go!”
    That was all a year ago now and Melanie had
lived up to her part of the agreement and Rebecca