On The Winter Tour With Harry Sprague

I never knew there was so much bare country with no trees and just plain dirt in the world as there is in this part of the United States where we cut across on the winter tour. It's like being an enlisted man in the French Foreign Legion. I ran into a knockout babe with a convertible Jaguar car in Tucson when we were both picking up our cleaning and pressing, but my timing must have been off for she said she was catching a plane that night. Also would appreciate it if you would let me know if we can make some new finances arrangements like I wrote you about which you did not say anything about in your last letter.
Yours truly
Harry Sprague

Mar 1nt
Dear Mr Parmenter
I am writing you in New Orleans and you see I am back to using my own hand writing which is because my funds are getting low. My two buddys Grissom and Vickary are making me follow a budjet with no more spending on habadashry and stenos till I start winning again. Funny thing about those stenos. Where ever you go they all have names like movie starlits and you walk up the stairs to the office exspecting you are going to meet a real live doll with a car and every time what do you see in front of you. One of those old aljebur teachers with pins stuck all over her head who is old enufh (spelling?) to a been an air raid warden in the civel war.

Your boy is finaly hitting it again Mr. Parmenter. I dident qualify for the last 36 at Baton Rouge but I was hitting it so good that George Bayer who I was paired with one round was twenty thirty yards behind me off some tees and pressing to get that close. The Hebert brothers Jay and Lionel who call it something like Aibair in french are very regalar guys and came over and told me my actiun (spelling?) looks way improved and to stick with it and before long I will be taking the boys just like Grant took rich men. Which is what a lot of the other pros came over and slapped me on the back and said. They are a real good bunch. I dont want to knock myself but they also were right when they were telling me I wasnt getting my putts to drop because I am a charjer and keep charjing the hole and have got to work for a smoother stroke or tap. Thats exsperiense and you dont get it unless you go out and play aradic golf and learn some thing from your mistakes hey. This is a funny game turnament golf. Being a big hitter like myself gives you an edge but you also have got to be solid which is why those old pros who are vetran enufg (spelling?) they could open up steno offices keep right on going year after year. The other thing is tempermint which I always had as you know from watching me starring in three sports for Micawba High and winning those driving contests at the range and the Micawba Open.

About those finances arangements Mr Parmenter. I would like to get them fixed up so that I can save some money this year at the range from a salary insted of always being in hock to you for the previus season. In your last letter you say my head is getting too big for my hat and I dont know how well off I am with you backing me with loans. My coleague pros say they can swing me an assistance job for me that will give me a much better deal all the way. I just as soon come back to the range where all the gang knows me but let us talk over a new arangement in your next letter. Okay.

You probly noticed that some of us enlisted men are getting in the money like Albie Vickary did at Baton Rouge with that 68 on the last round so our sindycut had a big party at a nite club and I got up and sang a couple of songs at the mike to show the folks I am a real pro material.
Your Truly
Harry

March 24, 1958
Mr. Walt Parmenter
Parmenter Enterprises Co.
148 So. Main St.
Micawba, Mass.
Dear Mr. Parmenter,
I got your telegram congratulating me on my performance in tieing for eighth (8th) place in the Pensacola Open which I certainly appreciated since it is the first dough I have won since LA. My prize money share came to six hundred dollars ($600) from which I am mailing you a mail order for two hundred ($200) as part payment down on the funds you loaned me as my backer on the winter tour which I am leaving now.

I am dictating this letter in St. Pete not to steno but to an old girl friend of mine from Micawba, Marian Haydock, who you probably remember when she used to live on Depot Street. This is why it is all typed up with every thing dotted and spelled correctly again. To make a long story short, Marian has been down here, which I didn't know, for two years working in the office of a real estate outfit in St. Pete; and I ran into her at the tournament here last week.

As you probably read in the papers, I missed the money here by four (4) shots but all my old "Buddies" now tell me: "Harry, you are looking like a player now" or "You are really moving it, 'man' "; which is my pro colleagues' way of saying I am really moving it.

Marian is looking like a million dollars ($1,000,000). She always had it in that dep't but not so much, like I tell her. We are hitting it off like "Gang Busters," and what a relief it is after all these months to bump into a "babe" who talks my language; which Marian does seeing she was a soph and saw every basketball game the year I broke the high school scoring record by "tossing" in those thirty-three (33) points—thirteen (13) field goals and seven (7) fouls—against Braintree High.

Now if we can discuss the other mutual business of ours, Mr. Parmenter. First off, I have decided not to come back to work for you at the range. Mr. Amos A. Tabor who runs the Otter Lake Resort and Country Club up in the state of northern Michigan signed me up as an ass't pro, for which I thank my old "Buddies" on the tour who introduced me to him after my showing at Pensacola. Otter Lake is a real big resort with twenty-seven (27) holes. It doesn't open until middle of May so I latched onto a job instructing at a driving range here in St. Pete where I will make my headquarters until then. Mr. Tabor is going to have me represent Otter Lake on the tour next winter when the course is closed up with snow and unseizable weather. It is all in the contract on paper, and Vickary, Grissom, and my other colleague pros tell me it is a wonderful deal for me. I am enclosing the mail order for two hundred dollars ($200) and you will receive the rest on a monthly installment plan Marian says she will work out.