The fact that Brooks has had several serious operations recently hasn't seemed to slow him down. That puts him in good stead with the hard-working people of Lake City, a hard-scrabble town between Jacksonville and Tallahassee where most people hunt or fish when they aren't working the 9-to-5. 'I'm just an old country boy who's worked hard all my life,' Brooks said. Or you might see him stop during a round, get down on his knees and yank out a clump of goose grass.
The Southern Oaks Golf Club here in north-central Florida is the former: a happy, active place where on any given day you might see owner Ron Brooks out on the course, operating a backhoe or one of those big, industrial mowers.
