I turned around and shared my realization with Jack.
"You drove with me to my first event for this project," I said. "And now you're driving back with me from my last."
Jack's eyes lit up, and he uttered the only response that could possibly be appropriate at that point.
"Wow."
Five months after I started my journey through the enigma known as minor-league golf, it has come to the end. I've been to Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. I've interviewed countless players, watched thousands of holes of golf played, and added plenty of miles to various cars. I've slept in my car, gone to events on no sleep, ate too many dollar-menu chicken sandwiches, and listened to too many top-40 radio songs.
I'm all the better for it, I think. Either way, I rolled back into Syracuse last night with Jack (among others) in the car. Just as I left Syracuse for Greenville with Jack in the car, five months ago.
Before this project started, I had a disjointed vision. I knew I wanted to gain a sense of what life in the minors really is, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. My plan was to watch as much golf as I could, talk to players as much as I could, and replicate their travel experiences as much as I could.
Along the way, I gained varied insights into different areas of the Web.com Tour life, with the graciousness and generosity of the players and media officials who gave me their time and support. I got to know players, befriended players - and in the pinnacle of my journalistic (and right up there in my personal) life, caddied for Kevin Johnson in Springfield.
So what did I ultimately learn? To put it concisely, I still don't really know. I now feel that to truly put together a great project on life in Triple-A golf, I need more time. I need to talk to players over the course of a few years, attend tournaments over that span as well. Right now, I have a snapshot of the Tour, which is perfectly fine for a good project.
To make it great may take a while.
But I'm here, with my first year of the experience completed, and I'm still alive. I did it, somehow. Who knows how.
I do know that these players are good, that the line between the big-boy tour and these guys is incredibly fine. A couple putts here, an untimely hook there.
I know these guys don't live rich. Renting cars to drive from place to place, staying in budget motels, sometimes traveling together. It's a traveling fraternity. Many of them could do better financially if they went into other lines of work.
But they love what they do, and that's good enough.
And I know these guys are normal people. They don't have egos. They aren't famous enough to have egos. They happen to play a game for a living where you can track their results on a website - and besides that, they're just like you and me.
Just the fact that I was allowed to caddy should say plenty about that.
So here I am, back in Syracuse, ready to jump into the heart of my senior year of college. Where does time go?
It doesn't seem that much long ago that I was sitting on my old porch at 501 Clarendon St., planning the South Carolina trip with Jack. The trip was his idea, which led to my project becoming a reality in Greenville, which led to plenty of summer memories in far-flung places like Wichita and Springfield.
Which led to Jack returning with me from D.C., to complete the circle. Jack didn't come home with me from Greenville (he took a plane back to Cleveland for his birthday) and he didn't come with me to D.C. (he had an interview on Friday morning, and he caught a bus to Washington to meet up).
But the trip definitively began with Jack, and it ended with him. Completely unplanned, but absolutely no surprise regardless.
The root of the entire golf adventure took hold in London, when I truly learned the value and importance of spontaneity, not being afraid to do things that you want to do. Sounds easy, but it seems to me like a trait that needs to be learned.
I learned it abroad, while traveling with Jack and the gang through places I had never expected to actually see - places like the Vatican, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Amsterdam Red Light District, and so on. I could go on for days.
So it's fitting, then, that one of my London roommates - Jack - helped to begin and end my golf sojourn. Without the willingness to take a risk and try to get access to a professional golf tour, the experience would have never happened. I would never have fulfilled a personal bucket list item of caddying in professional golf, or a professional dream of interviewing dozens of pro golfers.
Be bold. Be brave. Take risks.
Don't fear failure. Fear the possibility of never having the opportunity to fail.
Generic truths, but statements that served me well in my adventure. Thanks to everyone who played a part in making it happen.
As Dave Matthews would say, "And here, we will rest in peace."
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