Lawrence’s Lynn Riney wasn’t set on playing golf Monday.

With his 86-year-old father, Raymond, recuperating from open-heart surgery in Des Moines, Iowa, the last thing the Shawnee Heights golf coach was worried about was scraping together a decent round in his first Senior Series event.

Gary Engelgau of Topeka chips onto the ninth green at Alvamar Country Club. Engelgau was competing in the Kansas Golf Assn. Senior Series event on Monday. Story on page 6C.

Yet, that’s exactly what the 51-year-old Riney did Monday at Alvamar Country Club, as he fired a 2-under-par 74, which placed him second in the 50-54-year-old division.

“It’s the luckiest round of golf I’ve ever had,” said Riney, who immediately following his round drove to see his father.

“He’s been in my thoughts all the time lately, and I was asking myself if I should even play,” Riney said. “But I’d already registered and everything, and I knew I was heading straight up (to Des Moines) after the tournament.”

So what did his proud papa think?

Riney didn’t tell his dad, “Shorty,” of his luck on the links, being more concerned with his dad’s diagnosis.

However, the operation didn’t stop the two from talking about the game they love.

Shorty, who has always been a golf fan but never much of a golfer, was quick to change the subject to Tiger Woods and his recent triumph at the U.S. Open.

“There’s just no one that can play with him,” Raymond told his son.

On Monday, few golfers were able to stay within reach of Lynn Riney.

Mission resident and Riney’s tournament partner, Jigger James, won the 50-54-year-old division of the tournament and scored the day’s overall low round with a 73.

Though not even James seemed to have the magic in his bag that Riney pulled out.

“I just got every bounce out there, it was incredible,” said Riney, a teacher at Shawnee Heights.

No two holes were more spectacular than Nos. 13 and 18.

On the par-4 13th, Riney hit a shot that he thought splashed into a nearby creek, but the ball somehow bounced hit the water, cleared the cart path on the other side and landed about 80-yards from the pin.

His luck on the 18th was eerily similar, he said of his “six iron shot some 160-yards out that just missed a Cottonwood tree, took two bounces and landed three feet from the hole.”

For once, Alvamar didn’t play him.

“I’ve been playing this course as long as anyone, and I’ve cussed these exact holes many times,” Riney said. “But today I got three or four of the biggest bounces I’ve ever had on a golf course. I got the best “member’s bounces” you can get.”

Riney even wondered if there was another force aiding his ball on Monday.

“I’ve had better rounds out here before, but that’s the luckiest round I’ve ever had. “Who knows, somebody might just have been helping me,” Riney said.