Larry Collins stalked the edges of the fairways and greens, barely talking, scrutinizing his daughter Brooke’s swing, the changing wind, the slopes within the sand traps.
He had spent the previous two days caddying for his older daughter, Chelsey. But by the third day, Chelsey was out of the Colorado Women’s Open. So she carried Brooke’s clubs (her little sister tied for 13th), and Larry, 52, returned to another variation of a familiar role: golf dad.
As both of his daughters took to golf and thrived, Collins was beside them, fueling them with encouragement and enthusiasm, teaching them how to read greens, working with them to perfect their swings.
“My coach will say something and it won’t click, but then (Dad) will jump in and say something, and I’ll understand,” says Chelsey, sitting outside at the Green Valley Ranch Golf Club after the first day of the tournament.
Maybe harmonic convergence is at work.
Larry Collins played golf for the University of Southern California, where he had some famous teammates, including longtime PGA player Craig Stadler, who won the Masters in 1982. Collins played as a professional for four years, and then began working in country clubs and resorts as a golf pro. Now, he’s the director of golf at the Omni Interlocken Resort & Spa in Broomfield.
Both of his daughters play on the University of Oklahoma women’s golf team, Chelsey, 20, this fall as a junior, and Brooke, 18, as a freshman. The sisters were star players in Colorado. One year, playing for Monarch High School in Louisville, they helped lead the team to the state championship. At the time, the Collins sisters were 50 percent of the team.
“Keeping children busy keeps them away from TV, away from unhealthy social environments,” says Larry one afternoon after a match, in the tidy Louisville home where the Collinses have lived since the early 1990s. “They don’t have that downtime. Sports are just a healthy activity — physically, mentally and socially.”
Athletics are at the center of Larry’s close relationship with his daughters.
While the kids were growing up, Larry worked at Boulder Country Club, where the girls played a wide range of sports, including golf.
At some point, they became nearly obsessed with horses, and although he was not exactly the equestrian type, he got behind their pursuit: attending their meets, watching them practice, opening his wallet.
Dad, coach, mentor
Before the sisters became teenagers, they started taking golf seriously, playing at the state level, and that’s when Larry’s relationship with his daughters inched into something unique, a combination of dad, coach and mentor.
Ever since, he’s been golf dad — not just a fan, not just a support system, but a daily, persistent presence. As teenagers, when Chelsey and Brooke weren’t in school or doing homework, chances are they were on the course, and every chance he had, Larry was out there with them.
“I don’t know where he gets his energy. He’s always enthusiastic,” says Larry’s wife, Terri Collins, 51, who devotes most of her free time, too, to the girls’ athletic pursuits. “Larry has sacrificed everything for these girls. He will go in early so he can work with them later in the day. He’ll work weekends so he can caddy for them during the week. Larry could be No. 1 (golfer) in the state, but he doesn’t try because he wants to be with the girls.”
Collins is a tall, lanky man who still can shoot a 67. (Both his daughters have broken 70.) He wears his golf shirts buttoned all the way to the top. He smiles easily. His daughters know when he’s upset or angry with them — he doesn’t yell, he just becomes quieter and doesn’t smile.
The bond between Larry and his daughters is hard to overlook. Lots of hugs. Hugs after the matches. Hugs to mark partings and greetings. Daughters will sidle beside him and welcome an arm draped around a shoulder. Such behavior does not always describe connections between fathers and daughters between the ages of 15 and 25.
“I don’t think a lot of people have a sport they are really into with their dad,” says Brooke, trying to explain the tight bond between the sisters and their dad. “He’s very active.”
Chelsey had a rough sophomore year at Oklahoma. Among other things, she wasn’t playing as well as she wanted. She became despondent about her game. But as soon as she returned home for the summer she played in the Colorado Women’s Open. “He’s responsible,” she says. “He’s gotten me back into golf.”
A week later, Chelsey earned a spot on the women’s Colorado Cup team.
At the end of the summer, both girls leave the family nest for Norman, Okla., about 700 miles southeast of Louisville. The prospect of being separate from both of them must pull at Collins’ heart a bit, but when asked about it he just shrugs and smiles.
“We’ll be in airplanes a lot,” he says.
Douglas Brown: 303-954-1395 or djbrown@denverpost.com
