Several years ago my son, Lee, came down from Bellingham, Washington to play with me in a senior championship tournament at the Three Rivers Golf course in Kelso, Washington, a distance of about 230 miles. He won first prize. Since the prize could only be given in merchandise, he decided that it should be a wedge club. It had to be ordered.

He called me several times wondering if the club had been delivered yet. He was going to play in the club championship at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club, where he is a member and he thought it would be a big help.

Finally, the club arrived. Fred Bader, the then pro at the golf course, told me when I arrived for my round of golf. That day Willis Knox, with whom I regularly play, wasn't going to play. Normally I would then go out with someone else. This day there wasn't anyone else available. I then started out by myself. This doesn't happen more than once a year.

As I approached the second hole, there was a threesome on the green. They signaled for me to join them. As we walked to the third tee one of the young men asked me if I lived in the vicinity. I said, "Yes, I live on the other side of the river in Longview". I asked them where they were from. They said they were from the Bellingham area and were just on their way home from playing golf down at the ocean in Oregon and just happened to see our golf course. I said that my older son is a doctor in Bellingham. The only one whose name I remember asked me what his name is. I said that it is Lee Hein.

Randy said that Lee is his family doctor and that his wife had an appointment that week. Having a mind that is a littler sharper than the proverbial marble, I asked if he would mind taking Lee's club up to him. Of course he would be happy to. I picked up the club from Fred and gave it to Randy.

Several nights later Lee called me saying what in the world did I mean giving his brand new golf club to a perfect stranger. He then went on to tell me that when Randy and his wife came into the office, Randy had a very long face and somehow, his wife actually had tears in her eyes. Randy said, "Lee, things haven't been good around our house, financially, lately. We know that you are an avid golfer and we wonder if you would like to buy this brand new club and credit it to our account?".

Lee took the club and inspected it and it was exactly like the club he had just won down in Kelso. Randy wasn't able to carry the hoax any farther and admitted that it was indeed Lee's club. He then explained how this little, gray haired, old man had caught up with his threesome at the Three Rivers Golf Course and how he happened to have his golf club.

I would love, sometime, to meet a mathematician who would be able to figure the degree of probability or even the possibility for the intersection of all these coincidences. I sometimes think that there is someone upstairs with a heck of a sense of humor who dreams up scenarios like this.