KETTERING — After the passing of her father, a woman is experiencing the dream they shared as a reality.
Christine Lindsey said her dad helped her fall in love with golf.
“He got me started playing golf when I was 8 years old” Lindsey said.
She admits, it has been tough being at the biggest tournament of her life without him.
Lindsey is part of an elite group of women’s golfers competing for a national championship at the U.S. Women’s Senior Open in Kettering.
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“It was very emotional when we got here Sunday and just you know walking up to the clubhouse,” she said.
“I did get teary-eyed walking in just because I felt like, man he would have loved it,” she added.
Lindsey recalled telling her dad that in 2022 she would be 50 years old and eligible to play in the Senior Women’s Open — but there was one problem.
“‘Christine, when you’re 50 I’m going to be 80′ ...‘I don’t think I’ll be able to be caddy.’ I said ‘well that’s OK, dad, I’ll get another caddy and you can just be there to watch.” she recalled.
This would be the last time they talked about that goal.
Her father, Jim Ridenour, died suddenly just two months later.
Lindsey had a picture of the last time they golfed together tucked into the blazer he was buried in, in a pocket near his heart.
“I just told him that I was going to do my best to continue playing. I was going to give it my best shot to get to the Senior Women’s Open. It broke my heart to do it without him. I just was going to do everything I could to get there,” she said.
Lindsey is a PGA professional but she does not golf for a living.
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She settled into a full-time career in real estate 15 years ago.
She still plays for fun every weekend, but competitively just once a year.
Then, she qualified with a round of golf in Columbus for her first US Open.
“When I got finished and I found out that I did indeed qualify, the flood gates kind of opened and there were tears of happiness, tears of sadness that he wasn’t there because I just knew he would have been beside himself with joy,” Lindsey said.
A few days later, Lindsey went to the cemetery to tell her dad the good news.
“I had a copy of the scorecard and I had a little post-it note and I wrote on the post-it note, ‘Dad, we did it! Love, me.’ And I put it with a golf tee and stuck it in the ground next to his headstone and took a picture of it and sent it to some of my family members,” she said.
The competitor in her wants to make the cut.
She will be focused, all the while keeping the memory of her dad close to her heart.
“I hope that I would make him proud,” she said.
But just as the note at the gravesite said— she did it, dad.
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