Guest Contributor Chris Saksa is a young business professional in the Chicago area employed as a Field Recruiting Coordinator for CNO Financial Group in their Bankers Life division. A 2016 graduate of Illinois State University, where he earned a B.S. Degree in Communication Studies: Organizational and Leadership Communication, he is devoted to, among other things, golf, the White Sox, Blackhawks, and as you'll read, family. This is his second blog for CliffSchrock.com:

Golf has always been a sport parents and their children have bonded over. Father-son examples that come readily to mind are Earl and Tiger Woods and Jay and Bill Haas. I can imagine that at a young age, Tiger and Bill saw pro careers in their future, that's how great their talent was. Of course, Bill's father Jay was a strong tour player himself. But for the majority of us sons who followed their fathers into the game, we knew that golf with our parents was going to focus on leisurely fun rounds on a Saturday or Sunday. However, just because most of us didn’t make it to the PGA or LPGA tours (let's not forget mother-and-daughter golfers), it doesn’t make the bond between parents and their children any less special on the golf course.

When I was a kid growing up in Texas, my parents bought me a plastic golf set and I would spend hours in our backyard hitting golf balls back and forth and sometimes even hitting them over the fence and into our neighbor’s yard. As I grew older my parents bought me my first real set of golf clubs, but it wasn’t until I was 10 years old and my family and I had moved up to a western suburb of Chicago that I really started to pick up the game. It seemed like every Saturday or Sunday, once the snow melted, my Dad and I were out there making first tracks in the morning dew.

On those early summer mornings what really meant the most to me was that I got to spend time with my Dad playing the game we loved. During our rounds we would have a lot of great talks. Life got even better when I was a junior in high school and my Mom began to pick up the game. In my hometown we have a par-3 course and the three of us would play on Sunday evenings, then we would go home, throw some food on the grill and enjoy sitting on our back patio as another great weekend came to a close.

With this week being the U.S. Open and the final round being played on Father’s Day, I will do like I have done every year, whether I am away from home or able to sit down with my parents and watch golf, I always tell them “thank you” for without them I would not be the man I am today.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there and thank you to all the parents who wake up at 5 a.m. to go play golf with their kids. Enjoy the golf everyone!

Golf Writers from the Heart

Golf and family: An ode to father-and-son golfers on Father's Day Weekend