Chris Bojar, A Cheesehead Golf Nut
My love for golf started like most Midwestern kids living in the suburbs. I grew up in Mequon, Wisconsin -- just 15 minutes north of Milwaukee -- and I was introduced to golf at a young age by family and friends.
Growing Up With The Game
Many of my favorite memories on the golf course came from playing with my parents as a kid -- we played nine holes on Friday afternoons and then go to dinner together afterwards. No matter what, we had some type of bet going and each of us (usually) hit at least one good shot, even if we lost the bet. So, as the saying goes, we kept coming back. Some days I enjoyed the dinner more than the golf, where we talked in detail about our favorite shot or our favorite hole. It shaped how I view the game today -- as a fun competition.
In junior golf, I usually couldn’t wake up early enough to make the first tee times, so I often was paired with the girls. Looking back, it seemed silly the boys went out first, but playing with boys and girls as a kid helped me see a wide range of approaches to the game. I’m glad I wasn’t a morning person back then. Like many suburban kids with interest in golf, my first job was as a caddie at Ozaukee Country Club. One of my first loops out at Ozaukee was for a member who had a unique strategy I’ll never forget. If she was any more than 150 yards from the hole, she would hit her ball as close to the 100-yard marker as possible. I can’t say she got up and down in two from there every time, but she did it often.
Many people second-guessed her approach, but her strategy was effective. As her regular caddie that summer, I was the lucky recipient of extra tips thanks to all her winnings.
Phyllis, The Gamer
When I was young, my mom’s parents lived in a Florida resort named Grenelefe just outside of Orlando. Visiting them was always a treat because we’d go to the Disney parks, play golf, tennis, and swim to my heart’s content.
(Fun fact: Jennifer Capriati trained at Grenelefe as a kid before changing coaches, so I was one of thousands of people that she waxed on the tennis court.)
I have fond memories of driving the golf cart before I was old enough to drive a car, getting treats at the turn, and playing my very competitive grandmother. Whenever we played each other, I had to call her by her first name, Phyllis, instead of Grandma and I never seemed to win. As I got older, I realized that Phyllis always asked me my score before she told me hers. Needless to say, I learned cheating in golf and what not to do on the golf course at an early age from Phyllis.
From The Swings To NewClub
Last summer on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I was pushing my daughter Audrey in a swing at the park at a birthday party for one of my son Aaron’s classmates and was wearing as many golf logos as possible. Another dad at the party approached me and asked where I golfed around town. I mentioned that I didn't really have a go-to spot, and he mentioned NewClub.
Soon thereafter, he invited me to join him and his friend for one of NewClub's standing Saturday tee times at Mount Prospect. As I learned more about NewClub during my first round with the group that day, I was hooked. That dad at the park was Brian Mullin, who I am lucky to now call a good friend and great golf buddy. I joined NewClub in late 2018, so the 2019 golf season was my first year as a NewClub member. Without hesitation, I can say that 2019 was my favorite year of golf in my entire life. We started off the season with an epic spring meeting in late April in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that gave Pollinators the chance to play four amazing courses.
The highlight of that trip was our day at Sweetens Cove where we had the course all to ourselves for the entire day. Throughout the summer, there were plenty of NewClub events and tee times at interesting courses around the Chicagoland area. The season ended with a bang in November with the Honey Pot, where we played a nine-hole scramble with alternate routing of holes at Calumet Country Club. I've truly enjoyed every NewClub round this year, and as my wife, Katie, can attest, there were many of them. What I love about NewClub is that it provides an opportunity to play fun rounds of golf on a variety of interesting golf courses with like-minded individuals.
While this seems like a simple idea, it isn't that easy to pull off in practice, which is what makes NewClub so special.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Each year, we ask members of the golf society to nominate their peers for the annual Palmer Award, a tradition handed out to the member who best embodied the core values of NewClub.
It’s an award named in part for our inaugural winner’s son, Palmer, who thanks to golf’s most swash-buckling champion of the people, shares a namesake that will always elicit the best qualities of our game. On Saturday, Chris Bojar was named the 2020 recipient and if you’ve had the pleasure of playing with Chris, you probably know why. His passion for community, family, and golf is inspiring. After we tallied the votes back in January, we asked Chris if he would be a feature for our blog, little did he know we had a good reason.
We’re honored to have Chris as a big part of our golf society and congratulate him on our club’s top honor!