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Generous Santa gives golf lover her dream set

An anonymous donor drops off a set of hybrid Snake Eye Irons to an avid 72-year-old golfer.

By KELLIE DIXON, Times Staff Writer
Published December 25, 2007

Santa, if you're reading, Marge Lamothe got the clubs. She says thanks.

And she is so excited, especially because now she can take the Snake Eye Irons out of the box from under her Christmas tree and use them.

It's a rule, you know. Christmas presents can't be opened until Christmas Day.

Today.

Finally.

Lamothe, 72, received the clubs last Friday after an anonymous donor - call him Santa's helper - dropped them off at Silverado Golf Course where she plays several times a week. An avid golfer, she is the tournament chair for the Silverado Tuesday Ladies league.

The local man, a longtime golfer himself, had read about Lamothe, who shared in last week's golf page that the best present were Snake Eyes hybrid clubs. He happened to have a full set of ladies irons at his house so he dropped them off for her last Friday.

By the time she finished her round of golf, he was gone. Lamothe was stunned to hear what he had done.

"The pro didn't bring them out until I was done," Lamothe said. "And I looked at them, and he said, 'Open your trunk. These are yours.' I said, 'Wait a minute, I didn't buy those.'"

No, the pro responded. Santa Claus just made an early stop.

She cried.

And then she checked them out club by club. They were a perfect fit.

She loaded the box of nine clubs into her 1996 Chevy Caprice and headed for home, where she put them under the Christmas tree.

She loves the Snake Eye clubs. Last Christmas, her children gave her the money to purchase hybrids, and she's convinced it has changed her game. Now she can't wait to see what happens with a full set.

She doesn't plan on letting her old clubs sit in a corner and collect dust, though. Moved by the stranger's generosity, Lamothe plans to donate the clubs she won't use to the Zephyrhills High School golf team. She sometimes works with the boys golf team.

"I figured I can do one good deed, too," Lamothe said.

And she hopes this case settles anybody's doubt in Santa. He exists. Obviously.

"I've always said to the kids, 'I don't care how old you are. You believe in Santa Claus, and there is a Santa Claus,'" Lamothe said. "I just want to thank him, whoever he is."

Submit feedback, story ideas to kdixon@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 24, 2007, 20:49:38]