Golf a way of life for
Tucson’s Boys of Summer

By Ryan Finley,
GolfArizona.com Staff Writer

“I used to play with (former San Diego Padres second baseman) Jerry Royster all the time,” Donovan said, “God, he would bring those damn clubs everywhere. But let me tell ya…”

You would think that a man so involved in baseball would take up music, film, or, well, just about anything else but golf. As he carries on, one can’t help but wonder if he’s in the wrong game. In the state of Arizona, baseball and golf go hand in hand. It’s a lot like how actors want to be musicians and musicians want to be actors. You can’t explain it. Well, maybe Donovan could.

Golf in Arizona is a way of life. During the summertime, it’s just a matter whether or not the average player can handle the 100-plus degree temperature. That is where you’ll find members of the Sidewinders ballclub, trying to sneak in a quick round before it’s time to return to “work,” if one can call it that.

“I would say about 50 percent of the club golfs”, Donovan said. “It’s just a nice way to unwind.”

But why golf? The average minor league ballplayer is accustomed to long road trips and seemingly endless hours on the team bus, hopping to and from such towns as Albuquerque, Rancho Cucamonga, and Walla Walla, to name just a few.

Why would he want to spend even more costly hours walking a course? Donovan seems to know.

“In the minors, players learn to be patient, with the bus rides and the lethargy of a road trip. I guess 3-4 hours on the course doesn’t bother them as much,” he said.

Donovan also sites a very ordinary reason: most players love the man-versus-himself aspect of the game. “All ballplayers are a little bit selfish in that aspect,” Donovan said. “We all grow up with very dramatic baseball dreams. Being up with two outs and the bases loaded, pitching in the World Series, hitting a home run. This is no different. Nobody is more in the spotlight than when they are in the tee box.”

Not to mention the fact golf is one of the few sports sanctioned by most baseball teams as safe.

“Baseball players are competitive guys,” he said. “Since they can’t get away with playing pickup basketball of touch football during the season, golf seems to be a safe answer.”

With the exception of back problems, most baseball players are safe playing golf on a regular basis. The naturally competitive nature that fuels most of these athletes will also carry over to the recreational realm of life. Just look at the states that hold spring training camps: Florida and Arizona.

Both are virtual golf havens. A common trait for major leaguers during the spring is a phantom disease occurring right before the twilight tee-times start. Major leaguers in Arizona and Florida pull themselves from meaningless exhibition games and disappear. Call it golfitis.

A tall leftfielder from the Padres organization is late to his tee time. He runs up to the box, where some of his Las Vegas Stars teammates have already teed off. No warm-ups, not even a measly practice swing. He shoots par. His name is Dusty Allen, heir apparent to leftfielder Reggie Sanders and, from all accounts, one hell of a golfer.

“Dusty Allen is one of the best golfers I’ve ever heard of,” Donovan said. “There’s this story going around about shooting a par…cold. People talk so darn much about his golf game, they forget he’s going to be a major leaguer someday soon.”

Despite his talent on the links, Allen, sadly, has no plans to change his sport.

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“The Hawk went and played in a few qualifiers, but he was so bad that he decided to come back to baseball,” Donovan said. “And that was the end of that.”

That’s really how golf is if you’re a baseball player. A player may score par and decide to take golf seriously, but it usually ends up as a passing fancy. It doesn’t matter if it’s the La Paloma Golf Club in Tucson or the finest course in Dodgertown, Fla.

Until the average baseball player can make the same amount of money playing golf, it will remain a leisurely addiction, much like it is for the average American. Just don't tell the Tucson Sidewinders.