Celebrating Dad: The Champion In Your Family

June 15 (NAPSI)-If you’ve ever spent time on the links with your Dad, you know that golf creates a more intimate experience between fathers, sons and daughters than just talking about doglegs and bunkers. If this rings true, you may want to tee up a new Web site-one that celebrates this emotional connection.

Recognizing this unique bond, the Golf Channel is honoring fathers everywhere through an initiative that gives Dad his due. The network has established a place where people can celebrate special connections with their fathers (or father figures), as well as give them a chance through a special contest to send their Dad on a dream trip to the home of golf-St. Andrews, Scotland.

“If you’ve ever played the game of golf, chances are it was your father who placed that golf club in your hands for the very first time,” said Golf Channel President Page Thompson. “And, most likely, it was your father who taught you the lessons that have not only served you well on the golf course, but also in life.”

The site, www.GolfChannel.com/FathersDay, offers a place where people can post recollections and lessons learned from time spent on the golf course with their fathers.

For many professional golfers-and even the hundreds of Hollywood celebrities who are hooked on the game-it was their father who first sparked their interest. Golf Channel asked some of them to share stories about their Dads and the life lessons they learned through golf, or about passing along that same love of the game to their own children.

“By the sheer nature of the sport, golf has played such an important role in starting or enriching father-son and father-daughter relationships,” added Thompson. “Through a Dad’s wisdom and guidance, you learned about honor, tradition, respect, sportsmanship, perseverance and patience. And because of golf, you shared time and memories with your father that will last forever.”

In essence, the network’s celebration of Dad demonstrates that while he was teaching you how to swing a driver, he was really trying to build confidence, and while he was lecturing about the rules of the game, it was really about learning integrity.

The dedicated site allows users to send Father’s Day cards, enter the contest, view other entries, watch videos and even take a video tour of St. Andrews, where more memories will be made for a Dad and his lucky kid.

Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer of his generation, is known as much as a family man as a champion golfer. Pictured here with son, Jack II. (Getty Images)