Michael had all 14 of his clubs returned to him, including a putter he has prized for 35 years.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Michael Burton never expected to get his golf clubs back.
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Because when he arrived home from a day at the Cobram-Barooga Golf Club on Tuesday, May 6, he couldn’t find his bag of clubs anywhere.
He remembered placing it, as he always did, in the back of his golf cart.
But when he arrived home, his bag, containing his Callaway Paradym clubs — and a TaylorMade Nubbins putter he’s owned for the last 35 years — was missing.
A string of recent incidents had tarnished Michael’s faith in humanity. He began to imagine the worst-case scenario. Somebody had picked them up and decided to sell them. Or a visitor from interstate had mistaken Michael’s bag for theirs.
“I canvassed the neighbourhood, and nobody had seen anybody around,” Michael said, days later.
“But one of the neighbours says, ‘Are you sure they didn’t fall off the back of your golf cart?’”
So that afternoon, Michael filed a police report.
Later, as his worst fears grew, he posted a call-out on the Cobram 3644+ community Facebook page.
He wasn’t sanguine about the prospects of his post getting any response. So by that point in the day, his hopes of reclaiming his prized clubs had all but evaporated.
In fact, it got to the point when Michael began considering taking out a loan to finance another set of clubs.
But sure enough, about two hours later, a message lit up his inbox.
“And it said, ‘Ring me’. So I rang [the day after], and this fellow said, ‘I think I’ve got your golf clubs’,” Michael said.
“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. You’ve got them?’”
So on Wednesday, Michael went to the stranger’s house, his hopes high.
And there was his golf bag with his 14 clubs — including, most importantly, his prized putter.
Michael couldn’t believe his luck.
Michael Burton was “over the moon” to have his prized golf clubs returned to him.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
“There was no damage, there was nothing missing out of my bag, all my clubs were there. I was over the moon,” he said.
When he offered the stranger a gift of gratitude, the other man turned it down. He had found Michael’s bag of clubs beside the road near the golf club.
“I did give him something because I couldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t. I gave him some money, and said, ‘Look, pal, this is all I’ve got’,” Michael said.
But the stranger was reluctant to take even that.
“He said that if it happened to him, somebody would do the same thing. It was amazing, absolutely amazing,” Michael said.
Returning home with his clubs securely fastened in the back of his car, Michael’s faith in humanity was restored.
“I just want to thank him so much for his honesty,” Michael said.
“I just hope that something good comes his way. The positive karma train, I hope it visits him.”
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