It was June 23, 2012. I remember the date because June 23 was the first day of a PGM (Professional Golf Management) Seminar. PGM is run by the PGA of America, the authority of professionalism in our career as golf professionals. I was waiting for the elevator on my third floor hotel room of the Hilton Garden Inn in Port St. Lucie, Florida, when I noticed a pretty attractive fella out of the corner of my eye. We stepped in the elevator and as I turned around he stepped in. That’s when those dreamy blue eyes memorized me for the first time.

I walked out the door, knowing which direction to go to get to the Learning Center, while the guys were unsure. I tend to over-plan on almost everything, so I had already scoped out the route. The dreamy blue eyed guy said “I’m following her, she knows where she’s going!”

That day in class, the guy with dreamy blue eyes happened to be facing me two tables over. We kept making eye contact, like over and over again I would look his way and he was looking at me, and vise versa. I finally leaned over enough to read his name tag. Michael…. from… CALIIFORNIA. Perfect, just perfect. A guy that lives on the other side of the country. I’m thinking about those dreamy blue eyes and thinking…. Ahhh, well that would never work out.

That day at lunch Michael came and sat at my table. He introduced himself and I got to see him very frustrated right off the bat. Michael tried to relate to one of our instructors about fly fishing, and the instructor only wanted to talk about himself and kept talking over Michael or trying to disagree with him. We chatted a bit over lunch. After lunch we were allowed to switch seats. Michael threw his backpack into the seat next to me, so no one could take the seat before he made it over. So, here is another major point awarded to Michael. He threw the backpack like a basketball, and given I’m from Kentucky, that was pretty sexy!

That evening I went down to the Sam Snead Tavern Bar in the hotel. Michael was there and he invited me out to bowl at Duffys. I hopped in the shuttle and off we went. Michael and I talked all night. It’s a miracle he still liked me after watching me bowl a career best of a whopping 88! We sat at a table with all the other guys at PGM and talked even longer. Every time we got interrupted Michael got frustrated. Most of the guys left but we stayed. We actually missed the last shuttle so we had to walk back to the hotel!

We spent an amazing week getting to know each other and we had so much fun. We had breakfast and dinner every night, we played poker until midnight, we sat off fireworks, we hit balls on the driving range, it was a whirlwind. On the last night, Michael and I took a shuttle to a nice restaurant called the West Side Grill. Michael had to catch a shuttle to the airport at 4:30 a.m. the next morning so we couldn’t stay out late. At dinner, he told me that we should keep in touch, and that if we ever needed to bounce a golf idea off someone we agree to call each other… Something that always makes me snicker to think about. A few hours later, it was time to say bye. As he stood outside my room, gave me a hug, and kissed my forehead, I began to cry. He promised me that we would see each other again.

I cried myself to sleep that night. I was woken well before my alarm went off… It was a text from Michael… Totally not a golf idea he needed to bounce off me. He told me he missed me. My heart melted. We began to plan when we would see each other again. When we did, it was Iike we had never been apart, only better. It was like that each time we saw each other.

We knew we wanted to be together, so he tried to move to Florida. I ended up moving to California. Two days later, May 2, 2014, atop Catalina Island, Michael asked me to marry him. We were married July 12, 2014 on a perfect day in my hometown in Kentucky. I’ll be posting some throwback wedding pics tomorrow!

We both enjoy all things golf, music, movies, family, and being outdoors. We agree to disagree on politics and golf club duration… Long story.