Published: July 20, 2008 12:42 am            

WOLCOTT: Enjoying the green

LOCKPORT — Thoughts while watching the bees go from flower to flower to flower at “Ottaviano Park” — the picnic bench in our adjoining backyards.

The lawn is covered with clover, adorned with little white flowers. The chances of looking over a four-leaf clover are about 10,000 to 1.

When I was about 5, I found a four-leaf clover and sold it to my big sister for a dime. That was good luck for me. About 50 years later, I found another and gave it to my younger sister for her birthday. She liked that better than the real gift.

The four leaflets stand for faith, hope, love and luck.

I intend to overlook lots of greenery on Thursday or Friday. That’s the middle days of the Porter Cup at the Niagara Falls Country Club and my days off.

Opening day, Wednesday, is a crapshoot. Any one of the 75 amateurs might spring out on top. Saturday, crowds will be packed around the leaders.

Golf fans can follow their favorites from hole-to-hole, or camp at their favorite shady spot and watch the some of the best amateur golfers in the world go by.

Until I covered the cup, I didn’t appreciate what good athletes the golfers are. My favorite was Jerry Pate, an unheralded Porter Cup player in 1974 who went on to win the U.S. Open in 1976. Many of the pros played in the Porter Cup on their way up. Pate still talks with wonderment at my a par on the 10th hole.

It’s a little more fun when you pick out a player, and my man to watch this year is Drew Weaver, a senior at Virginia Tech. Weaver is ranked 76th by World Amateur ranking, and Weaver is one of Denn’s Ten. Steve Denn is the tournament director.

The Porter Cup is 50 this year, and Marty Shimmel is the general chairman. I only mention that because about 35 years ago, little Marty was a gopher for the Niagara Falls Gazette sports department. A gopher is a part-timer who will go-for this and go for-that. Now you’ll find Shimmel wearing a green blazer.

Bill McGrath, who started covering the tournament for the Gazette in the 1960s, is the Porter Cup scribe. He’s done the job 39 times and helped the Niagara Falls event get national recognition.

Getting back to the greenery, bees have the lucky life, going from flower to flower. During Lockport in Bloom, the buzzy guys went from one beautiful plant to another doing their thing.

Sunday’s assignment was to go to one yard in the garden tour. There were hundreds of plants for visitors and the bees to enjoy.

A green thumb is a good thing. It gets one outside and away from thumbing messages on a computer.

Contact reporter Bill Wolcott

439-9222, ext. 6246.

        

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