Frank

In the mid 1990’s, I played in my first three day Member/Guest at my home club (Conestoga Country Club), with my brother as my horse.

Having been beaten badly in our first nine hole match (which by no means is unusual), with renewed enthusiasm we approached the first hole of our second nine-hole match. There were the customary introductions and salutations; .good luck, have fun, etc. We were playing against a private banker and his guest, an attorney. (I feel like there should be a joke there about a banker and an attorney stepping onto a golf course…) On the first green, Mr. Banker marked his ball which happened to be in my line. As I returned from a quick look from the other side of the hole, I noticed a familiar logo on Mr. Banker’s marker…the wings of Baltusrol!

I asked about the origin of the ball marker and that’s when the fun began. Mr. Banker stated that he had caddied at Baltusrol in the early 1970’s. I stated that I had caddied at Baltusrol in the early 1970’s. My brother chimed in that he had caddied at Baltusrol in the mid 1960’s (at this point, the attorney must have felt like he missed something significant in his formative years).

That moment brought two parallel universes together:

	Mr. Banker	Bad Golf Guy
Home (neighboring towns)	Summit, NJ	Springfield, NJ
Childhood Employer	Baltusrol	Baltusrol
College (rival schools)	Franklin & Marshall College	Lebanon Valley College
Residence	Lancaster County, PA	Lancaster County, PA
Passion	Golf	Golf
Club	Conestoga	Conestoga
Employer	Sterling Financial	Sterling Financial
Favorite Sports Teams	Yankees / Notre Dame	Yankees / Notre Dame

Our relationship from that moment became social and fraternal. Mr. Banker even created a special handshake that was ours and ours alone. He loved golf and all of its trimmings; friends, wagers, matches, the 19th Hole and many laughs.

Sadly, Frank Innacola passed away on October 14th, 2016 at the age of 62 after a nine year battle with multiple myeloma. Frank was a friend and he always made me (and countless others) laugh. I miss him, I miss our connections, I miss our locked-pinky-finger handshake and I especially miss his wry smile as he would walk toward me letting me know a good laugh wasn’t far away.

By the way, we lost that nine-hole match to Frank and Andy.  I hope that Frank is chuckling.

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