MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2018
No one will fault you if you spent Sunday afternoon in front of your television. That’s where most golf fans planted themselves. For many who love the sport, this was our Super Bowl Sunday. A familiar venue seeping tradition and inviting closing-round fireworks. We sure got some. Here are highlights we noticed from this year’s Masters.
Last year is not this year
So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. (Ecclesiastes 11:8)
Plenty of conversation surrounded Jordan Spieth regarding the “demons” he carried into this year’s tournament, especially after finding water at the twelfth in 2016 and 2017 on Sunday afternoon. Spieth found safety this time around, holed his putt from the back fringe for birdie, and nearly set a course record and forged an all-time comeback.
Yesterday is not today
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34)
We could fill this container several times over, but let’s talk Tony. Salt Lake City’s Tony Finau (in)famously danced his way to dislocation after notching a hole-in-one during the par-3 competition. Nearly everyone—Tony included—guessed his Masters was over with that compromised ankle. Instead he came out on Thursday with the confidence of a negative MRI result to buoy him and shot 68, planting him nearly at the top of the leaderboard. A day later, he fell back, then again on Saturday. But Sunday’s second name came around and Finau chained together birdies like popcorn on a string. He’ll be back in 2019, thanks to the top-10 finish that resulted from his closing 66.
This hole is not the next one
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)
Every golfer is supposed to know this. We must leave what just happened and go on with the next thought, the next swing, the next execution. So easily said. Add the demands of tournament pressure, then major championship pressure, and you’ll recognize that what Patrick Reed did on Sunday was remarkable. Each time he faltered, he responded in a big way. And each time others threw a fresh challenge his way, he steadily came up with birdie. At one point in the telecast, it was noted that “pressure is coming.” But no one seemed to tell this to Reed.
Youth is not maturity
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD! (Psalm 25:7)
Let’s end here. Patrick Reed has been given the “intensity” tag, especially owing to his Ryder Cup prowess. He has also been spurned in social media by those who profess to have firsthand knowledge of mistakes he made in college (imagine!) or who didn’t like his seemingly premature claims to excellence after winning early in his career. Wherever Reed’s attitude rests now, he was decidedly humble and underspoken in both the Butler Cabin and the outdoor ceremony. Maybe that’s what victory on such a stage does to a person. Or maybe that’s what years in the trenches of both the tour and life do to us. Reed may always be as crazy-eyed as Ian Poulter when it comes to team play, but if he’s changing as a man, we certainly owe him the latitude to do so. Nearly all of us have needed the same in our own lives.