Greetings, all golf lovers,
I’m writing this on Saturday, June 16, 2018, safe in my living room in Annapolis, Maryland.
I’ve just watched Dustin Johnson three-putt the eighteenth hole of Shinnecock Hills. On Thursday and Friday, he averaged 25.5 putts per round. Today he needed 38.
Most fans are shaking their heads right now. Shinnecock was almost unplayable today. But Tony Finau and Daniel Berger shot 66 in the morning and picked up 11 strokes on Johnson. With defending champion Brooks Koepka among them, we have a four-way tie for the lead.
I had the pleasure of playing in two US Opens. I feel for the guys who battled the afternoon winds and baked greens, especially Johnson.
We will have tribulation. But if we lock in with Jesus, under his yoke, we can be of good cheer.Still, the picture I have in my mind at this moment is that of a helmet. Not Johnson’s last putt. Not those crusty greens. But a specific helmet of an NFL football player.
Why this image? It’s because of a story that happened around the 1995 US Open, won by Corey Pavin. It’s one of my favorite US Open recollections.
I followed my long-time friend Tom Lehman that year. He was tied for the lead after 54 holes with Greg Norman and might have won except for his 70th hole, when he made seven at the par-5 sixteenth.
Meanwhile, Pavin started the day three shots back and posted a 68. Those behind him could not match it. His even-par 280 total would beat Norman by two.
Now here’s the story. Pavin is a good friend of Phil Simms, former quarterback of the New York Giants and Most Valuable Player in the Giants’ win in the 1986 Super Bowl. The week before the tournament, Simms delivered a gift to Pavin in the Shinnecock locker room. Previously Corey had asked Phil for some Giants memorabilia and Simms sent a helmet. Not just any helmet. The very helmet Simms wore in that Super Bowl victory over the Denver Broncos.
On this US Open Saturday in 2018, I’m shaking my head, too. I’m smiling, glad that I’m not playing. Yet I’m curious why Phil picked the helmet for Corey. Though I don’t know the answer for sure, it does symbolize what I saw happening today.
Struggle. Conflict. Warfare.
Shinnecock took down some of golf’s great contenders today, as it has in the past and likely will again when the USGA sets up Shinnecock Hills eight years from now.
This is the US Open. Future contestants can expect tribulation.
We, too, as followers of Jesus, can expect tribulation. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace,” Jesus said. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 KJV).
We will have tribulation. But if we lock in with Jesus, under his yoke, we can be of good cheer. We can overcome the most difficult of Shinnecocks or Oakmonts or Pebble Beaches. We can experience his peace.
Postscript: Sunday was not much easier at Shinnecock Hills. Trouble came again. Just when Patrick Reed or Tony Finau mounted a charge, a slippery putt or a drive into the fescue undid them. But one player stood tall. Brooks Koepka. The now two-time defending champion seems so very equipped for tribulation. Unflustered and confident, he overcame—just as Jesus did with all the world could throw at him.
—
Jim Hiskey
June 20, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.