10 Years Ago Friday

I married my wife Chris 10 years ago this week on 7-7-07. I got to pick the date. I had to pick something that would be easy to remember so I would never forget our anniversary.

Chris and I met in the mid 90's. She was married and I was dating a woman. We only ran into each other a few times after that until the 2001 B.C. Open.

I was working covering the event for a radio station and she was volunteering as a walking scorer. They are the people that walk with palm pilots alongside the players, counting every shot to keep the scoreboards and the TV announcers up to date as to what the player's scores are. She stopped me as I walked by the scorer's shed and said, "Hey, aren't you Jim Free?" So I stopped to talk with her and she told me that she and her husband were getting divorced. I didn't have a steady girlfriend at the time. So after talking with her all four days of the tournament I decided I would ask her out.

That Sunday before the tournament was over, I asked her if she would like to go golfing sometime and she said "Sure, I could use another golf buddy". And the rest is history.

We dated for a year and a half and then bought a house together. I proposed on December 31, 2005, at 11:59 pm as the ball was dropping on TV from Times Square. She said yes and the next day we set the date.

The wedding was awesome! We had my two uncles who were priests, and the priest from our church, officiate the ceremony. My brother that just passed away two months ago from cancer was my best man. Her son Ian, was also part of the wedding party. After the ceremony we went over to En-joie, where the first Dick's Sporting Goods Open was about to get underway that week, and had some pictures taken there being that is was where we met up again.

We had a blast at the reception and then the next morning, we had all our family, our wedding party, and their families join us for brunch on a patio overlooking the river in Owego.

We honeymooned in Jamaica and had a blast. Here we are 10 years later and we are best friends. We do just about everything together. We have so much in common, it's rare that we go and do things on our own.

Thank you Chris for ten awesome years! I love you, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you.