Kirby Smart, successful football coach and wearer of visors, was hitting some golf balls on the driving range on Wednesday when out of nowhere a small dog sprinted into view.
Smart is usually the only ‘Dawg allowed at the Regions Tradition pro-am at Greystone Country Club, but an uninvited pupper decided to crash the party this year. Why? Not sure, but I have theories. I think it was looking for the Promised Land, or possibly the 19th hole. I’m not a dog expert, though. I’m only a sports reporter. What happens when a runaway dog runs headlong into a fancy golf tournament? Well, that I can answer with confidence. People chase it.
The dog was downfield of Smart and other pro-am golfers at first, but it moved fast in the direction of its destiny, bounding, streaking, sprinting through the driving range as it went. Everyone was in disbelief at the randomness of the universe cascading before our eyes. Everyone except the man in the visor, that is. Smart looked on like a guy who has seen more than a few eager dogs run towards him at speed.
Smart is the coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, and his recent string of back-to-back national championships qualifies him a certified dog whisperer, but this was something else. This was something that commanded my immediate attention. Minutes earlier, I had asked Smart a sarcastic question related to Nick Saban and golf, but there are times for jokes on the golf course and there are times for action. This was one of those times when funny business and serious business occurred in short order.
This was the time a frightened Chihuahua named Moses was rescued at a golf tournament located in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.
People saw a dog in need, and people helped. It was beautiful. It was pure. Along the way, someone tried to feed Moses peanut butter crackers, but Moses did not want a golf tournament’s manna from heaven. No, Moses just wanted to find his way home. He did, thanks to a couple dog lovers, and it all happened before 9 a.m.
The pro-am of the Regions Tradition is a fun event every year, and people from the Birmingham area take pride in participating. Charles Barkley, American treasure, always participates despite the event occurring in the middle of the NBA playoffs. Bo Jackson is a regular, and so is SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. This year, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze made his Regions Tradition pro-am debut. Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne was gracious with his time, too, and represented Alabama well in the absence of football coach Nick Saban and basketball coach Nate Oats.
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All of those guys are notable sports figures who took time out of their lives to help raise money for Birmingham hospital Children’s of Alabama. Here’s a hat tip to them all. Their presence made the day special, and I hope everyone took active roles in the ritual of proper social hydration. What I’ve learned as a reporter throughout the years is this. When given a chance to read a column about celebrities at a pro-am, or instead read a column about a random stray dog at a sporting event, the fine people of this world will choose stories about dogs pretty much every time.
The classic movie “Homeward Bound: An Incredible Journey” is set in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This story is kind of like that, but with more golf and less bears. A frightened dog named Moses embarked on the adventure of a lifetime one fine spring morning in Alabama, and it all started because he really had to pee. Usually Moses just goes right back into the house after watering the yard. Not this time. This time, for reasons that will remain a mystery, Moses set off on a journey through the wooded unknown of his very own transformational vision quest.
Was Moses leaving behind false promises? Did Moses feel chosen? Was Moses following a path of salvation, or was Moses just looking for the future Mrs. Moses of his dreams? We’ll never know because Moses is a dog.
About a half mile away from Moses’ home in Greystone is the property of the local golf course. Nice place, the Greystone Country Club. Good smells. Every year, the club hosts the Regions Tradition. It’s one of the major tournaments for the senior golf circuit they’re now calling PGA Tour Champions. The tournament runs Thursday through Sunday, but the weeklong event’s big day is the Wednesday celebrity pro-am. Volunteers arrive around 6 a.m. Reporters and players begin showing up around 6:15 a.m. It’s a well-run operation.
Honorably doing their part, celebrities began cycling through brief interviews with reporters around 7:15 a.m. It was around 8:16 a.m. when I asked Georgia’s no-nonsense football coach a very silly question. Did Smart’s success on the football field chase Alabama’s coach away from this year’s golf pro-am?
“I don’t know,” Smart said. “Is he not here?”
Alabama’s prophet of college football did not attend the pro-am, Smart was informed, but a four-legged omen named after a prophet was about to reveal itself to college football’s latest big dog. The scrum of reporters had just finished up with questions for Smart, and next on the schedule was an interview opportunity with Charles Barkley. Smart walked over to the range, and so I peeked around the corner of a tent to see what kind of golf swing he was working with. Not bad, but Saban’s might be better … Wait, what is this I’m now seeing out of the corner of my eye?
My brain was trying to process an unexpected scene.
Is that a small animal? Maybe a fox or bunny? Perhaps a gopher like in “Caddyshack?” But, no. It was none of those things. It was Moses, tiny as a tin cup, and our little friend was racing in the direction of people hitting golf balls.
Stop everything, the moment demanded, and people did.
Some stuff just makes you wonder. For example, Moses ran from the back of the driving range all the way to the feet of a man whose last name begins with the letters F.U.R. Jim Furyk bent down and greeted Moses with a kind hand. It wasn’t meant to be, though. Oh no, Moses appeared to understand, this man went to Arizona. Moses moved away from Furyk quickly, sidestepping potential danger, and it was at that point that local sports reporter and dog-saving hero Jamie Hale of ABC 33/40 went to work. Hale left the reporters scrum and walked with pace through the VIP-only driving range like she invented the game of golf.
“I missed the Barkley interview, but whatever,” Hale would later say. “This was more important.”
Naturally, Moses was scared after his run-in with the Arizona Wildcat. There was panic in Moses’ eyes, Hale noted, and worried energy all around. Thankfully, the dog found an ally when it was coaxed by Hale into the vendor tent for UAB Callahan Eye Center.
That’s when the local TV sports reporter helped Moses into the arms of a dog lover named Kelly Ann German. Here’s the clever thing about that. German volunteered at Regions Tradition on Wednesday as a golf marshal. Her day job? She owns a dog care business called Pet Paparazzi.
“Dogs love me,” she said.
How do the dogs always know?
German quickly found the phone number of Moses’ owner on the dog’s collar and Hale buzzed 76-year-old Don Thornton. I waited for Don to arrive. I needed to see this story all the way through. The people needed some happy news.
Moses, Don said, is four years old and only eats chicken. Well, I thought, that explains Moses’ aversion to peanut butter crackers. Mystery solved there. What was Don doing when he got a call from Hale? Like I was saying, some stuff just makes you wonder. Don says he didn’t realize Moses was gone.
“I was in the bedroom reading AL.com,” he said, “and I got a call from this strange number but I answered it.”
Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.