D.A. Points' mother encourages him at Masters

D.A. Points' mother encourages him at Masters

For Mary Jo Points - a former Pekin resident whose son is playing in his first Masters tournament this week - Mothers Day came a month early this year. Her reaction to his request to be his caddie invoked the most sincere emotion from the former Pekin Country Club champion."I cried," Mary Jo said. "I went over to him, hugging him and crying, and thought, 'Oh, my land, I can't believe I really get to do this.'"This is something that was on my bucket list."D.A. Points - a 1995 graduate of Pekin High playing his fifth season on the PGA Tour - earned an Woods Is More Relaxed Now invitation to the Masters in February when he won the AT&T National Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Points played that event with amateur partner Bill Murray, the Illinois native and actor/comedian of "Caddyshack" fame.A suggestion that Points ask Murray to be his caddie for the Par 3 Contest was briefly considered. But only briefly."Somebody mentioned the whole Bill Murray thing and I thought about it for a second," D.A. Points said. "But I always knew in the back of my mind I would ask my mom."She would appreciate it so immensely that if I didn't ask her, it would hurt her feelings.Points' parents - Mary Jo and Steve, who is retired from Caterpillar - now live in the Orlando, Fla., area near D.A., who lives in the golf community of Windermere.

They are able to follow D.A. to many PGA Tour events, much like they always have."I remember as a small kid playing in tournaments like the Lil' Guys and Gals (in Peoria) and the Pepsi Little Peoples (in Quincy)," Points said. "Anywhere around Illinois that had a junior tournament, we would go. We would load up the van and go."Under the watchful eye of his mother - who once held the women's course record at WeaverRidge - he learned to play the game."Mom spent a lot of time with me at PCC around the chipping green," Points said. "She would put tees around a hole and say I had to chip five of 10 balls inside the tees before we could go home. She would stay there with me until I did it."Steve Points was close by as well, but knee-replacement surgery has made it difficult for him to follow the action every step of the way. Also present was D.A.'s wife, Lori, and their 1-year old daughter, Laila Jane.