Eddie Schutz 1/08/2019

For those of you who have had the pleasure of knowing Eddie Schutz can all agree on one thing. When you would hear his name, it would put a smile on your face. I wanted to sit down and write an inspiring story that I felt would hopefully move some of you. I had a great idea here and one there, and of course, there was this other time. But, after much thought, I decided to write a farewell to Eddie Schutz from your perspective, not mine. One memorable moment you would want to share with me is when you would be on the tee box at Dell Urich on hole #17. Maybe you've had a good round going or maybe not. After much thought, you would pull a wedge or maybe a nine iron out of your bag and hope that it is the right club. You are remembering that this hole is a hundred yards and change. Don't let the yardage fool you, this hole is all water carry with a tall rock wall holding up the green staring you right in the face. You have given much thought to how you are going to hit this shot and then you swing. Here is hoping the wind doesn't affect your ball flying through the air. After what seems like an eternity, your ball finally touches down just past the wall and barely on the putting surface. You breath a big sigh of relief as you wipe the sweat that has run down your leg. Then here comes your friend, Eddie, walking nonchalantly up to the tee box. With not a warm up nor thought, he swings at the ball. Maybe swing isn't a good word. It is this smooth flowing effortless motion that greets his golf ball with his more than trusty 13 wood. As you glance over towards the green, you see his ball touch down unbelievably 5 feet from the hole. Without a care in the world, Eddie heads immediately over to his golf cart. That couldn't have just happened. How in the world does he hit a 13 wood closer to the hole than I can hit my pitching wedge. No way! You put your club in your bag and start heading towards the green. As you are driving off, you look out of the corner of your eye and see "Mr. 13 Wood" collecting aluminum cans out of the receptacle and putting them methodically in a bag and loading it into his cart. What he is doing with those, you don't know. As you step on to the green, Eddie is already into his putting stroke. Let me correct that. Eddie is into his smooth flowing effortless motion with the flat stick. And, before you can can say a word, he is pulling his ball out of the hole with the head of his putter. You've never ever seen him bend over and reach into the cup and extract his golf ball. That just didn't happen. He just got a birdie and before you can address your putt, he is already off to either buy one last beer or go on one last search for beer cans at the 18th hole tee box receptacle. You want to share this story with everyone in the group but you come to realize he has done this to everybody already. That was Eddie Schutz. Everyone in the golf group has an Eddie Schutz story. The one story I've also realized is just how wonderful and pleasant to talk to is his better half, Laura. And of course, his daughter Amanda, is just as wonderful also. I don't want to keep you reading all day. You can fill in the blanks. The one thing we all know is that we will all miss him. Next time you crack open your trusty cold one, lift it up towards the heavens where Eddie is now golfing, and remind him to put his 13 wood in the bag. He is going to need that because God is a pretty good golfer himself. Peace be with you Eddie Schutz.