When someone has a birthday, you want them to have a good day.
But sometimes the stars align just right as Chris Mortiz celebrated his 40th birthday along with hometown friend Chris Gomery.
“How did it get here so quickly?” Moritz said.
The old buddies met on Gomery’s tuned-up fishing boat on Grand Traverse West Bay at 5:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, to salmon fish.
After a couple of hours of trolling, they hooked a 14-pound chinook salmon before having an incredible day on the golf course.
“After trolling for a few hours, we picked up a really nice king salmon. (Mortiz) was first on the rod. We were able to reel that one in, and it was a good fighting fish. Quickly netted it and got it in the boat. That was exciting,” Moritz said. “We got two knockoffs that day, so the fishing was a little slow, so I was happy that he was able to get a fish in.”
Gomery and Moritz both graduated from Suttons Bay in 2004, and they met in second grade, where they have been friends ever since. They managed to get the day off from responsibilities to celebrate his 40th birthday. Just as they had always done when they were kids.
The best part of a successful hunt is having a tee-time booked after it at The Crown Golf Club in Traverse City.
On the ninth hole, Gomery hit a hole-in-one, for the first time in his life after playing only six rounds of golf.
“There are a lot of golfers out there who just probably will shake their heads,” Mortiz said.
Gomery took a quick look and a solid swing and kept sight of the ball out of the corner of his eye while turning away. Gomery knew it from the start, but they hustled to the 150+ yard, par-3, peered down into the hole, and there the ball was.
“Chris was watching it. He was just like, ‘Oh, man, you’ve got to get in the cart.’ Get in the car right now. We have to go check this out.’ I was like, why?
What’s going on? We pull up in the cart and run up to the hole,” Gomery said. “I was like, you are messing with me. That’s impossible. But yeah, sure enough, when we looked down in the cup, there was my ball. It was roughly a 153-yard shot with the seven iron.”
The fellas returned safely home after the remarkable day.
“(Moritz) is one of my longest friends. We’ve been doing that since we were little kids. Let’s go goof around. Let’s do some fishing and get into something for the day,” Moritz said.
