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In talking to NHL players over the years, one of the things many of them look forward to in their retirement is a chance to go to The Masters.
The timing of the first of golf’s majors each year obviously conflicts with the NHL schedule. Once they’re done playing, walking Augusta National is near the top of more than a few players’ Bucket Lists.
Then there’s Dan Quinn.
The former NHLer will get a pretty good view of the tournament next week if you consider the view from Ernie Els’ golf bag pretty good.
Quinn, the 14-year NHL veteran who played for eight teams - including the Flames, Canucks and Senators - is caddieing in 13 events for Els this year, including two majors, The Masters and the PGA Championship.
I probably should have seen this coming. I talked to Els at the Golf Town Invitational at the Magna Golf Club near Toronto last summer. He asked if I knew Quinn, whom he had got to know in Florida, where they both live.
“Crazy guy,” he said.
It seemed funny that he would just pull Quinn’s name out of the air.
As it turned out, Els was considering Quinn to split the duties on his bag with his regular looper, Ricci Roberts, with whom Els has had an on-again, off-again relationship (the two are splitting their cut of Els’ winnings down the middle).
Els was looking for some new energy, as he put it, and liked the vibe he got from Quinn, a pretty accomplished golfer in his own right who won regularly on the celebrity circuit.
Ricci was on the bag for Els’ wins at the WGC-CA Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but Quinn gets the call next week.
Not a bad way to spend your retirement.
HEAR AND THERE: It’s a big week for veteran referee Kerry Fraser, who is retiring at the end of the season. His attention is elsewhere, however, after his son was in a serious car accident the day after Fraser worked for the final time in Montreal. Back home in New Jersey, Ian Fraser left dinner with his mom, dad and fiancee when he wasn’t feeling well and was struck head-on by a drunk driver, said Fraser. It took 45 minutes for first responders to cut him out of his Jeep and Kerry, his wife, Kathy, and Ian’s fiancee, Ida, were re-routed on the way home by the accident. They called Ian’s cellphone which was answered by a paramedic who told them he was on his way to a trauma centre in Camden, N.J. “Miraculously, Ian was spared with a broken hand and torn rotator cuff in addition to lacerations,” said Fraser in an e-mail. Ian was discharged Friday morning. Fraser said he will work games in Detroit Saturday and Chicago Sunday, as planned. “The show must go on,” he said.
REVELATIONS: Things are getting tense in Florida where the Panthers are about to miss the playoffs for a record tieing ninth straight year. “We have young players who aren’t learning how to win,” said coach Peter DeBoer. “That’s destructive.’’ Forward Stephen Weiss is feeling it, too. “You only get so many years to play, and for me now, I’m eight years in or whatever it is and I haven’t played a playoff game. And it looks pretty dim right now. It’s frustrating.’’...The Facebook campaign to get coach Pat Burns into the Hockey Hall of Fame is up to almost 38,000 supporters. Join at patburns.ca.
THE LAST WORD: Has there been a more overblown story than a few fans booing Canadiens goaltender Carey Price when he was named the third star at the Bell Centre the other night? They booed the whole team for the last three minutes of the game and it was, at best, a smattering when Price’s name was announced, which I thought was a carryover from a few boorish fans. Not to worry. I don’t think they’ll see Price again this season...maybe not again depending what happens this summer.