Father and Son Find Comon Bond in Golf

ELMSFORD, N.Y. — The frenetic conversation stopped mid-sentence each time Michael Mancino spotted the range cart heading out to pick up the golf balls carpeting the plastic turf. In a matter of seconds, the calculating 8-year-old was set up and locked on.
It was a game of cat and mouse.
Before each mighty swing, the little professor in soft spikes quickly reset the angle of attack without looking up to locate the source of his sudden inspiration. The third-grader at Central School in Mamaroneck has a knack with numbers.
"He was playing Monopoly at 5 years old and counting the money," Sal Mancino said of his son. "When you rolled the dice, he already knew where you were going to land. He never counted the spaces. He just kind of visualized the board."
It was therapeutic.

Ernie Els and Son Inseparable

For what it's worth, the Vegas oddsmakers have Ernie Els at 60-1 to win the Masters this week. That's nothing. The odds that Els would ever become an international spokesperson and world-class philanthropist for autism research were a VCU-like long shot, maybe higher.
But here he is, the unlikely front man for a cause he didn't choose. Instead, it chose him -- or more precisely, it chose his 8-year-old son Ben, who was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2006.
"At first, you think you've been knocked down by the man upstairs," Els said. "It is a challenge at first. But when you find your feet, it really is a blessing. It's a special way of life. These kids are special people. We call them, 'God's kids, God's children.'"