Excellent Dana tries out the golfing suit. Some Call It Luck : Some Call It Luck - Chapter 59 by Jim Wile

Background A brilliant and beautiful but insecure, nerdy young woman befriends a going nowhere older alcoholic caddie. Together, they bring out the best in each other and collaborate on a startling new invention Recap: Dana Griffin (nee Padgett), who was Abby’s chief tormentor all through grade school, finds herself in Altoona, Pennsylvania. She is a good golfer and joins Kettle Creek Country Club soon after moving there. While practicing one day, she sees a young redheaded girl practicing as well who reminds her of a young Abby. She then reminisces about her relationship with Abby back then and how poorly she had treated her. Dana is invited to have lunch and play golf with a woman she met on the practice tee. At lunch the next day, who should show up to have lunch and play in the foursome but Abby, who is also a member at Kettle Creek. It’s been 20 years since they’ve seen each other, and although they are cordial, they are also rather cool towards each other. Dana learns from the other ladies in the group how successful Abby is at her job and how good a golfer she is, having won the ladies club championship the previous year. Dana finds out that the young girl she saw practicing on the range is Abby’s daughter, Claire, who seems to be struggling with the game. She is having trouble learning the golf swing, which leads Abby to the idea of a new invention: a golf suit training aid that will swing for you to give you the proper feel of the swing. She tells Kenny about it, and they decide to invite E.J. and Eddie over for lunch and to bat the idea around. The team is onboard with the idea, and over the next few years the golf suit is created. Now it’s time to try it out on a guinea pig—Claire. She has terrific results with it, and Dana notices the vast improvement in Claire on the practice tee. She sneaks into the locker room and steals the suit while Claire is in the shower. Abby is irate when Claire tearfully relates that she has lost the suit.       Dana Griffin Later that night July, 2004     This thing is amazing! It’s a golf swing suit that makes your body move the right way to hit a golf ball. I’ve never seen nor heard of anything like this before. Where the hell did Claire get it? There’s even a rudimentary instruction book in a little pouch sewn on the outside, so I was able to figure it out after a while. Steve is at a conference for a couple of days, so he isn’t around to ask me where I got it. When he does, I’ll just tell him I saw it advertised in a golf magazine and sent away for it. He doesn’t play golf himself, so he won’t question it. His sport is tennis, and that’s what interested him in joining the country club. It took me a little time to figure out how to turn it on and input answers to some initial questions the thing asks you. There’s a little screen and keypad on the side for doing this, as well as a few buttons and dials. It will take some experimentation, I’m sure, to get the hang of it, but I’ve already tried a few things just swinging inside my family room, and by God, the thing actually works! All those little nubs inside push on your various body parts somehow and guide you into a perfect swing. You can fight it, but if you just stay relaxed and let it do its thing, you can get some beautiful swings going. I have a long mirror on the back of my bedroom door that I unscrewed and brought into the family room to watch myself swing, and the results were gorgeous to behold! I can’t wait to try this thing out on the practice tee. I now know why Claire always wore those long clothes to cover it up; she probably didn’t want anyone plying her with questions about it or thinking about stealing it! It looks like it has been successful in helping her groove a correct swing. She’s not as good without it, which was clearly the case when she was wearing just the T-shirt and shorts. She still needs some more work with it, but she has definitely improved since starting to use it a few weeks ago. I wonder where she got it from. I think I’ll practice with it away from the club—at a different driving range. Don’t want to arouse any suspicions that I pilfered it. The ladies’ club championship is coming up in a few weeks. If I can master it by then and make a significant improvement to my swing, maybe I can beat that Abby Payne-in-the-ass and become the next club champion! Wouldn’t that be sweet?       Dana Griffin Two weeks later August, 2004     I’ve been practicing with the suit for a couple of weeks now, and I’ve seen some definite improvement in my game the few times I’ve played at Kettle Creek without it. Earlier this week I shot a 78. I hit 10 of the 14 fairways and 11 greens, which is way better than my usual stats. Still not good enough to beat Abby yet, though. The club championship comes up in another week, and maybe by then my swing will be grooved enough not to need it. If I don’t feel like it’s quite there, I can always wear the suit while playing. I’m not above a little cheating now and then if it means winning the title. After all, Mother used to push the limits of the pageant rules and even break a few on occasion, but it did help me to win some of them. The thing is awfully uncomfortable to use for an extended period of time, though, and it’s starting to stink from all the sweat going into it. I’m afraid to launder it because of all the tiny electronics in it. I’ve wiped it down a few times with a damp cloth, which doesn’t seem to harm it, but that only helps a little with the odor. Maybe I’ll try sprinkling some baby powder inside it. I don’t think that would hurt it any.   (5 more chapters to go)   Author Notes Abby Payne: She is intelligent and beautiful, yet shy and awkward with most people her age, having been picked on quite a lot while growing up. She worked at the snack bar and as a waitress at Brentwood Country Club during the summers where she met both E.J. and Kenny, who is a member at Brentwood and became her boyfriend and eventually her husband. E.J. Budrowski: 18 years older than Abby, he is an alcoholic with a traumatic past (an abusive father and a mother driven to suicide) who is a caddie at Brentwood CC. One day he finds a dirty old golf ball on the edge of a pond that seems to have unusual powers, for he makes two holes-in-one with it. He and Abby become friends when she encourages him to take up both golf and bridge again after long layoffs. He finally quits drinking and returns to college at age 40 and earns a degree in computer science. Eventually he becomes a professor of computer science. Dana Griffin (nee Padgett): Grew up with Abby back in Butler. She is a bully and teased Abby unmercifully all the way through school. Coincidentally, 20 years later, she finds herself living in Altoona, where Abby lives, and joins the same country club as Abby. Kenny Payne: Abby met him briefly at a frat party in her senior year and was intrigued by him, then she sees him again when he walks up to the snack bar several months later. He is a mechanical engineer and is tall, good looking, and an all-around nice guy. After less than a year of courtship, he marries Abby. Eddie Phillips: A young member at Brentwood known for his extremely good putting and ability to hustle his opponents. Eddie is friends with Abby and beats Kenny in the club championship with a miracle shot. He and Kenny become best friends after that. Claire Payne: Abby and Kenny's 12-year-old daughter. Her inability to improve at golf was the inspiration for the invention of the golf suit.

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